


She of Little Faith

by TheRoguePhilosopher



Series: The Carmilla Urban Vampire Chronicles [2]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Hollstein - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-08-08 19:05:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 21,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7769539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRoguePhilosopher/pseuds/TheRoguePhilosopher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to "Existing"--Carmilla had to turn Laura into a vampire to save her life.  Vampire novel, part II.  Laura has to learn how to be a vampire, and a damn good one, given the many points of opposition that don't quite want her to make it out of the neophyte phase alive.  Luckily, baby vamp Laura has Carmilla on her side.  Lots of action, romance, and supernatural beings abound!  <br/>*You don't have to read the first story to enjoy this one, but there will be a couple of characters that I've made up that you won't be familiar with.  Also, I deviate from previous show canon occasionally in minor ways, but try to keep them in character.  I may throw I others from the show (Danny, Lafontaine, etc.) in later chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Whatever Shall Awaken

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the second part of what is now a series! Everyone who read the first part, left kudos, comments, general encouragement--you are much appreciated. New readers--glad to have you!

She of Little Faith

Chapter 1

“Drink.” 

The word was the first thing that sounded familiar to Laura, her senses fuzzy, like emerging from a coma. 

It was bright and dark all at the same time, and the word kept repeating itself, in different voices, spoken softly but louder than it should be. 

“Drink, Laura. I know you’re hungry. It’s okay.” The familiar female voice drew her into more of her surroundings, becoming less and less fuzzy. She felt the hand stroking her hair for a split second, before she felt the hunger. 

A violent jerk of hunger immediately took over her senses. She could see clearly that she was in the room she had been sharing with Carmilla, and the exposed wrist in front of her face. 

There was no hesitation. As soon as she had noticed the wrist, the smell of the fresh blood running through the veins underneath caused Laura’s very new, but still very tiny and sharp canines to pop into place, immediately attacking the skin, feeling like she hadn’t eaten for days. She felt her head pounding and heard her own primal growl, although she couldn’t stop herself. The pull to feed was too strong.

“Oh! This one’s just a little prick. Barely a bite at all.” Mateo laughed at Laura, who pierced his offered arm, knowing that offering to be Laura’s first meal as the only human in the group was more about his guilt at not being able to save her from the massacre that led her to die, and ultimately, for Carmilla to re-birth her. 

Laura continued to make little growl noises, although being so newly re-birthed Carmilla knew she was barely going to be able to drink a few tablespoons out of a trickle of a cut she was able to make with her baby fangs. Carmilla continued to stroke Laura’s hair as she had her first feed, knowing not to try to talk to Laura until she satisfied the intense first hunger. 

Agnes threw a glance over her shoulder at the trio, but continue to monitor the melt-down across the street from the window, making sure the room stayed safe for Laura to cycle into re-birth. Of course, Laura would still be able to walk and talk, but would be adjusting to her new senses, and most likely would be stumbling through a couple of days like a new born foal. The chaos outside would be much too dangerous for her to survive.

Carmilla smiled down at Laura when the growls turned into purrs, her suckling slowing down. The leather-clad vampire refused to cry in front of her friends, sniffling back the happiness that was Laura not dead, watching her awaken for the first time into a new existence. 

Laura abruptly stopped once the hunger was no longer throbbing through her head and her body. She hadn’t even tasted what she was drinking—her body was completely driving her first bite into Mateo’s skin. When she pulled back, she looked embarrassed, first looking sheepishly at Mateo, then at Carmilla. 

“Hey. It’s okay.” Carmilla said, waiting or Laura to make eye contact with her. When she did, Carmilla saw what was in her eyes.

Fear. She was afraid of what just happened-what was happening. 

Agnes was still watching at the window, seeing the nightclub implode on itself, the fires being smothered out by the collapsing of heavy steel and concrete. Most of the city seemed set to evacuate, although that part was less chaotic. Many of the Shadow creatures—vamps, werewolves, necromancers, warlocks—they’d had to up and leave a city in a haste before. 

Laura continued to stare up at Carmilla questioningly, slowly gaining her perception back. Her vision was less fuzzy, and it was suddenly clicking that Mateo was pulling back an arm that she had just bitten. 

“Carm?” She stuttered out. 

Carmilla nodded, not sure what to say. She let both hands run through Laura’s hair, somewhat in awe that it had worked. That Laura was a short breath away from death. And now Laura was very much alive and breathing. And had tiny, tiny little fangs and a red, bloodstained tongue. 

Laura ran her tongue over the two protruding, sharp points, eyes starting to dart about the room. She could hear the murmuring outside clear enough to pick up individual conversations. She heard voices she didn’t recognize arguing about going or staying, or something about all the smoke that was rising to the street looking suspicious, and the tail end of what seemed to be a shop owner arguing with a looter.   
The light in the corner that used to be dim suddenly seemed blazing. It was all frightening and unfamiliar and too much. 

Except for Carmilla. She could smell Carmilla’s scent as the more experienced vampire continued gently stroking her hair, sometimes trailing fingers over her face as Laura sat frozen. Carmilla’s smell was familiar, but stronger than she had ever remembered it. She instinctively moved towards it, leaning into the familiar smell and touch burying her face in a soft, pale neck. She felt two arms immediately wrap around her, lips fluttering on her forehead. 

“Well, it looks like most people are going up to the surface.” Agnes didn’t bother to turn around as she spoke, watching the smoke from the previous fires pouring up to the vents that she knew would go through the sewer system, and eventually lead to steam piping out of street vents into the above ground city. 

“Are you two going to stay or go up?” Mateo asked, rolling his sleeve back down. 

“We can’t go to a human city. Not after she’s just re-birthed.” Carmilla answered quickly, still cradling Laura in her arms. 

“Of course not. We can stay too, if you need us.” Agnes said, finally turning around, showing her guilt on her face for not having been able to fight off Kris and Kris sooner. 

“Thanks.” Carmilla said offering a small smile. And she meant it. If she didn’t have such good, loyal friends, Laura would have long been somebody’s dinner well before she arrived to save her. 

Agnes and Mateo nodded, understanding that it was a good time to leave the pair. They would have much to discuss. 

Once the door clicked shut behind them, Laura pulled back, giving her room to look up at Carmilla’s face. The memories were starting to come back into her consciousness. 

Being in the nightclub. Being mad at Carmilla. Being smashed, tied up, slashed. Being an immense amount of pain. Being relieved when she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness, as it would finally dull the feeling of being cut and bled. And then nothing, until she woke up in their own bed. No memory of how she got there, but judging from her first instinct when she awoke, she was quickly putting two and two together. 

“Laura, I’m so, so sorry. I couldn’t let you die. I had no choice. I know that--”

“I’m not mad.” Laura cut her off quickly, running her tongue again over the new points in her mouth. She heard Carmilla let out a long breath before holding both sides of her face, kissing her with all of the emotions she couldn’t vocalize all at once. 

Laura kissed her back, welcoming the familiar feeling of lips and tongue and hands moving to her hair, her own hands gripping Carmilla’s shoulders and back. She lt their mouths seal, tongues reintroduced to each other with a slight iron hint of flavor. Carmilla broke off, taking in a deep breath. 

“You almost died.” She waited, letting Laura take her time before saying anything. Laura’s brow furrowed in thought.

“I think I technically did die. Didn’t I? Is that how this works?” 

Carmilla nodded slowly, waiting for a reaction from Laura. It only took about three seconds before the questions that she knew bubbled under the surface would start pouring out. 

And indeed they did. 

“So. I drank Mateo’s blood. And—it tasted good. I’m just going to drink blood now? Like that’s what I’m going to just wake up and want for breakfast? And I can hear outside and all around us. Am I going to shift into a panther at some point? How does that work? We’re staying here? I thought Agnes said everyone is leaving and there is something evil right across the street--”

Carmilla grabbed Laura’s head, kissing her again. She was relieved that Laura was still—well, Laura. She smiled when she pulled back, stunning Laura into being quiet long enough for her to answer. 

“Yes, you will want blood now. Yes, you have vampire senses. I don’t know if you can shift—probably, since you drank from me to birth, but it’s based on your own predisposition. And yes, we need to keep base here. You’re too new to be up in a human city. Doesn’t worry about across the street. She doesn’t stick around when evil shit hits the fan and she’s found out.” 

Carmilla didn’t need to name who ‘she’ is. They both knew exactly who she was talking about, but Laura chose not to press. 

“Why can’t I go up above to New York with everyone else?” Laura sounded genuinely curious. 

“Laura, you have a lot to learn. Trust me, vamps left on their own to figure everything out tend not to do well. Your body is different. Your senses are different. And now, there will be humans who will want to kill you if you don’t learn to hide those new realities long before we go anywhere.” 

“What about us?” Laura said, not wanting to get back into their last argument, as given recent events it would be a moot point. 

Carmilla shook her head by kissing Laura again, this time slower. She tried to shove down the all too fresh memory of Laura slipping into death in her arms, focusing on the very much alive mouth attaching to her own. She deepened the kiss, her tongue running accidentally over Laura’s new sharpened teeth, causing her to pull back in a grin. 

“Does that answer how I feel about that?” Carmilla couldn’t stop smiling. Part of her new that Laura hadn’t gotten to make her own decision, and it felt wrong. The circumstances were certainly less than ideal.  
Another part of her was excited that Laura was like her now. She liked the thought that Laura would be able to tell if she was in a room with her just by sensing her and by scent. That she could run at full speed, and once Laura had some experience, she would be able to keep up. 

It was the first time she could kiss Laura and not have a nagging voice in the back of her mind at their inevitable demise. 

“Okay.” Laura answered, smiling back. “This is a lot to take in. Where do I even start?” 

Carmilla didn’t even know how to answer that. There was a lot Laura was going to need to learn, and some of it in a short time.


	2. Alone in a Bar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *For our visitors who didn't read the first story: Laura and Carmilla are in an underground vampire city modeled after a European-style old world city center.   
> **For everyone who has been reading so far, you are all so, so awesome!

Chapter 2

Carmilla felt a twinge of guilt, knowing that Laura was really not going to like some of this, but that it was necessary for her survival. 

Laura had licked her lips as soon as Carmilla had lined up the tiny sample glasses of blood on the abandoned bar. She was hungry, having had her first meal four hours ago. It was a tiny drink that she hadn’t paid much attention to at the time, but the small sips she had taken from the outstretched wrist had her feeling full and warm quite quickly. 

Now, the hunger was back in full force. As soon as she saw the glasses with blood in front of her, she moved to dive into one, not even conscious of her movements. Carmilla moved fast, stopping Laura. 

“Carm, please. I’m hungry, okay?” Her voice sounded shaky. She felt like she hadn’t eaten in days. She couldn’t ever recall as a human ever feeling hunger that seemed to set in out of nowhere, coming in full force. 

“I know, cupcake, but I need you to trust me here. It’s important that you know what you’re drinking.” The more seasoned vampire knew how it felt to be new to this type of hunger, but she also knew other things that Laura didn’t.

Like the known fact that only one in ten vampires survived out of the neophyte phase. They either fed recklessly and got themselves caught by humans, or thought that immortality meant they were completely untouchable and went into a battle unprepared against skilled Shadow Hunters, or they were completely unprepared for the emotional changes they would endure as the years went on. She herself only had basic, occasional guidance from the mother who had re-birthed her, and had to learn a lot of hard lessons on her own.   
It was lonely. And scary. And confusing. And she was going to make damn sure Laura didn’t go through that alone. 

“Please, Carm.” Laura whimpered, wringing her hands together, staring at the small glasses. Carmilla knew the baby vamp was already exercising immense control, considering how hard it is to control the urge to feed at first. 

“Okay, Laura. You can have the first--”

Carmilla hadn’t even finished the sentence before Laura picked up the first glass, tiny fangs already out, downing it greedily. She finished it in two gulps, putting the empty glass down and smiling at Carmilla. She smiled back, thinking how cute Laura looked with her happy, toothy smile. Her lips and tongue were bright red as she beamed her delight.

“That was delicious!” She went to pick up the second glass. 

“Nope. Not yet.” Carmilla guided the second glass down, with Laura following the motion, but not letting go. 

“The first one.” Carmilla tapped the glass. “What did you taste?” 

“Uhhh…blood?” Carmilla nodded and waiting patiently, pausing to let Laura know she expected her to continue. Laura peered down at the stained sides of the glass. It didn’t look any different than the others. She bent over and sniffed the glass, then comparing it to the scent of the still full glass next to it. She knew she was making the right move when Carmilla smiled at her proudly. 

“It’s fresh. It smells crisper than this one, almost sweeter too.” Carmilla nodded, trying not to show how much her heart was bursting.   
‘She’s going to survive’ was all Carmilla could think. 

“Yes, exactly. This one is fresh—it was still pumping through a vein not more than twenty minutes ago.” Laura considered this, assuming it was from the same donor as her first meal, as most of the city had fled. She looked around tensely for a moment, relaxing when she saw the casks and bottles of blood still behind the abandoned bar. 

At least she knew there wouldn’t be a city of a dozen or two vampires all lining up to drain Mateo. Not that Agnes would ever let that happen. 

“Are you still hungry?” Carmilla asked, snapping Laura’s attention back by holding up the second glass, also with two gulps inside of it. 

Laura nodded, attacking this glass with as much vigor as the first. It was different. It was thicker, with more pronounced flavor. It was still good, but iron with a hint of what tasted like Worchester sauce. It was blood with a depth of flavor. She paused after drinking, looking at the glass and tilting her head. Until that moment, she had assumed that all blood would taste the same. 

In a sort of barbaric way, she had processed blood drinking as purely animalistic. A primal need, where any prey would do. Clearly, she was wrong.

Carmilla waited patiently, letting Laura experience the difference for the first time. She was well aware that if they were in any other situation, she would be rudely staring, but she couldn’t help herself. She was mentally digesting that Laura was understanding the things she had experienced over the last three centuries for the first time. Truly understanding. 

One in ten.

“It’s deeper. I would drink this, but I would have to sip it slowly next time.” 

Laura was rewarded with Carmilla’s smile, her eyes lighting up.

“This one was from one of the caskets. It was from a healthy, fifty-year old French man who lived on a wealthy man’s diet, sourced from the best restaurants along the Riviera. Quite rare, actually, as it is type AB, Rh negative. It was then cased in oak for a year, rotated every four days.” 

Laura giggled at Carmilla’s description.

“Blood has vintages?” Laura laughed some more, feeling warm, and now only slightly hungry. When Carmilla had said she had a lot to learn, this is not what she had expected.

“Indeed. Also, when blood is not being consumed fresh, we put in some herbs that act as a preservative and allow it to age properly. Only the best for my creampuff.” She ran her hand up and down Laura’s back.

“So what does that mean for me to feed off of it?”

“It means it’s very expensive.” Carmilla laughed back, then dropping her smile as she eyed the third glass. 

Laura was really not going to like this. 

Laura picked up the third glass, waiting for Carmilla to give her a nod. As soon as the glass approached her face, she immediately knew the smell was off. She paused, carefully taking a sip instead of diving in like she had with the first two. 

“Ugh. UGH. No! Is this one poison?” Laura made a face, running her tongue across her front teeth, instinctively trying to take the taste of rotten vegetables out of her mouth. 

“Good! Laura this is good. You are correct; this one is vile.” Carmilla let out a breath and relaxed.

“So you are poisoning me? I thought I was immortal.” 

“This is from a sick person. If you were to ever need to feed and find someone who is passed out or weak to drink from and it tastes like this, stop. It will feed you, but then you’ll feel ill for hours. Only drink a small amount of this if you’re literally starving and have no choice.” 

“No problem there. There’s no way I’m drinking the rest of that.” Laura crossed her arms and pouted, still a bit hungry. She eyed the fourth glass suspiciously, before turning her eyes with an accusatory look back at Carmilla. 

The dark-haired vampire laughed. “That one’s not poison. I had to stick it in, Laura. It’s important that you learn this now instead of feeding in the moment and learning the hard way later.” 

‘Not the way I learned,’ Carmilla thought, ‘when mother purposefully let me get sick to teach me not to feed without her permission.’ Carmilla also was painfully aware now that she wasn’t re-birthed out of love, as she had done with Laura.

“What’s this, then?” Laura picked up the last glass, making it clear she wasn’t simply going to down it. Not after the last sample. No way. Laura Hollis could be fooled once, shame on her, but--

“This one’s good. I promise. Consider it a dessert.” Laura eyed the glass, but when she looked back at Carmilla, she saw nothing but sincerity, and maybe a little guilt after the last lesson. 

And she really did want to get the awful taste out of her mouth. 

She sniffed the blood, immediately picking up what smelled like cinnamon and sugar. Her mouth turned up into a smile before taking a sip. 

“Mmm!” She finished the whole glass of the treat down, getting caught up in the moment of delight, and dipping her tongue inside to lick the sides of the glass. Carmilla laughed again, bringing her hand up to run through Laura’s hair, who paused mid-lick, turning to look at Carmilla sheepishly. 

“Sorry.” She said, turning pink and putting the cleaned glass back down. 

“Don’t be sorry. What does that one taste like?” 

“Like blood, but made of apples and cinnamon and whipped cream. That was delicious! I can have that?” Laura suddenly liked being a vampire very much. 

“You can, in small amounts. Consider it a special treat. This is Fynnoderee blood. That’s why it’s so sweet. They’re known for being one of the sweetest types of Fairies. Well, Brownie-Fairy. They’re so damn sweet all the time because it’s in their blood.” 

“Oh.” Laura took a moment to digest, both the meal and the information. “I guess I’m confused?”

“You can drink the blood of other Shadows. Although remember, it needs to be willingly given or from a bottle. Trying to seduce any non-human into giving something they don’t want to will be met with a fight, and every Shadow has special abilities. I’d recommend staying away from werewolves altogether; they taste like dirt. And drinking from other vampires had side effects.” 

Laura started to panic at all of the new information. She had thought it was as simple as bite, drink, rinse, repeat—not that there would be kinds of blood or so much to think about. Should she be taking notes? Should she be taking notes and then highlighting them?

“What about you?” The question seemed to come out of the blue, startling Carmilla. “What do you like to drink?” 

Carmilla smiled, returning her hands to Laura’s hair. 

“Well, you’re my favorite snack, but that’s going to be a little different now. But I suppose when I have the opportunity, my first choice is always fresh.” She tapped the first glass as she spoke.

Laura thought back to when she learned Carmilla had been drinking from a blood prostitute. It made her uneasy, but she kind of understood. Having felt the hunger herself, if she were alone and hungry…she could understand the allure and have it be non-sexual. 

“I like them all.” Laura said, leaning into Carmilla’s touch. 

“Mmmhmm.” Carmilla enjoyed feeling Laura’s silky smooth hair draping through her fingers. It was still soft, but now had the shimmer that accompanied being a vampire. Laura’s skin glowed in a way that distracted Carmilla’s brain, the old vampire very much wanting to kiss the skin along her collarbone. Laura was always beautiful, but the slight changes in appearance began to stir in Carmilla, knowing a second type of hunger would be occurring in Laura shortly, and that in and of itself would be another lesson. She paused, getting up to pour herself a glass. She had started to get hungry herself. 

“It’s a good idea not to let yourself get too hungry, or you might make some bad decisions. If you go days without a good meal, you’re likely to pounce on anyone passing by out of instinct.” 

“I won’t.” Laura said, place her hand on Carmilla’s thigh once the vampire sat back down with a glass of the Frenchman’s vintage. 

“You know not to, but it’s going to be hard to remember in the moment.” Carmilla forced her mind to empty itself of every worst-case scenario that she left unspoken.

In case something happens and I’m not with you. In case something happens to me. In case of another incident like the riot at the club and you’re injured and will feel hunger to heal. Just in case. 

Laura picked up the still full third glass, smelling the rotting scent. 

“If I ever forget and voluntarily drink this, you known I went past hungry and into insane. Bleh.” Carmilla let out a laugh at Laura’s scrunched-up ‘yucky’ face. She reached over the bar, pulling out a small, silver bottle, re-filling the glass with Brownie blood. She handed it to Laura, clinking her own glass with it.

“Let’s finish dinner.”


	3. Touch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Italics are Laura's thoughts.   
> Second note: Thank you all for the super kind kudos and comments, and for reading the strange things that fall out of my mind :)

Chapter 3

 

Carmilla could only pretend to be asleep for so long.

 

Sure, Laura was a bit different since becoming a vampire. She was bolder. She was always a confident woman, fearless in her own way. But now, those traits surfaced in action.

 

The current action was occurring after Carmilla and Laura had spent the afternoon going through the rubble of the abandoned and collapsed night club across the street, searching for anything that could cause trouble to re-surface. Charms, magical implements, any signs of leftover drugs or the DJ equipment that had caused the occupants to trance-out in the first place. The remnants were so squeaky clean that clearly the place had been scrubbed, springing up fears in Carmilla that she immediately had pushed down, knowing that Laura would be able to hear if her heart started racing.

 

Lucky for the older vampire, Laura was still so new that even if she had picked up on a change of pulse rate, she didn’t know enough to question or react to it.

 

It was a trait of inexperience that Carmilla was grateful for now, pretending to be asleep in the middle of the night, as Laura was practically humping her from behind. If Laura knew that she was awake she certainly wasn’t letting on, going through the same ritual as she would if she wanted sex before she was re-birthed, but somewhat different.

 

Now there was a sense of urgency.

 

Laura knew she was on edge all day. She was still adjusting to getting hungry to the point of feeling starved at random times, seemingly out of nowhere.

 

She hadn’t expected the same urgency to apply to other kinds of hunger. Right now, in the middle of the night, after not sleeping for who knows how long, it was very much an urgent need. Now, as a vampire, when Carmilla walked with a swing in her hips as she watched from behind or kissed her with even a hint of her soft, red tongue, it immediately had Laura feeling like she had been kept on edge for hours. Walking was uncomfortable, and sitting wasn’t much better.

 

Most of the day she tried to ignore it, but it kept persisting—a constant feeling of swelling and wetness and feeling Carmilla’s full body pressed against her front in their light nightclothes had her begging for some kind of release.

 

She felt overwhelmed. She felt like Carmilla had spent the last hours keeping her teased, wet and on the edge of an orgasm without ever finishing with the bliss that was sure to follow any of their encounters. But she also felt guilty. Carmilla was clearly asleep, and Laura was trying to gently run her hands up and down Carmilla’s side, trying to see if her girlfriend would wake without blatantly shaking her for a booty call. Even the feeling of Carmilla’s warm body beneath the layer of material was driving her crazy.

 

Laura’s needs waged war in her own mind.

 

_She’s obviously tired. Don’t want her up. That’s selfish beyond belief._

Laura scolded herself, even as her hips began rocking against Carmilla’s round, tight backside on their own as she buried her nose in Carmilla’s hair, taking in a deep inhale.

 

_Okay that is not helping with the ‘letting her sleep’ plan. But she’s woken me up to be intimate before—and I liked it. But she was always the aggressor._

Carmilla kept her eyes closed as she felt Laura begin to run her fingertips along her bare stomach, firm enough not to tickle. The dark-haired vampire was having trouble disguising her own growing desire. She wanted more than anything to flip over and shred their nightclothes, showing Laura just how much the need was mutual. Instead, she focused on keeping her breathing steady, letting Laura rub against her.

 

_She’s not going to wake up. I need her to touch me._

Laura’s grinding was providing no relief, as the tingling between her legs persisted, pulsing with a dripping need.

 

_God, what is wrong with me? It’s not even like we’d be having sex for long. If she touched me for half a second I would come._

Laura was starting to get desperate. She moved Carmilla’s hair, exposing a pale, perfect neck. She started trailing gentle kisses, feeling Carmilla moan.

 

_Ahh. She’s awake._

Carmilla couldn’t stop the sound from escaping her lips when she felt Laura’s mouth dancing on her skin, pausing to run a tongue along her pulse point, sending shivers down both of their spines before Laura let two tiny points drag down the skin, providing a sensation that snapped Carmilla into the moment.

 

It happened so fast Laura didn’t realize she had been pinned onto her back until she felt the mouth that assaulted her own, tongue dipping inside, thrusting to match their still clothed hips.

 

Laura couldn’t form coherent words in her mind, letting Carmilla rock against her body, laying between her legs, her own hips rocking up. She was so close, and so, so, very wet and over-turned on to the point where she felt like she would cry if there wasn’t an end in sight.

 

She took Carmilla’s hand as they kissed, beginning to move it towards the waistband of her pajama pants. It was a move she regretted immediately, because it snapped something in Carmilla, causing her to break away from the kiss.

 

“Laura.” Carmilla looked down at her girlfriend. Laura was looking back up at her with feline slanted pupils, chest pumping up and down with desire. In her mouth, her tiny fangs were elongated. Laura’s animal side was coming out. Really coming out for the first time.

 

Carmilla had never been more turned on in her life. But she knew she couldn’t. Not yet.

 

“Laura.” She tried again to get Laura’s attention, who was blatantly starting at Carmilla’s material covered breasts, panting like she was in heat.

 

Technically, she kind of is. Carmilla smiled at the thought, enjoying being appreciated by the neophyte. But she still knew what she had to do.

 

“Cutie,” she tried again, “look at me.”

 

Laura’s cat-eyes snapped up, giving her lover a pleading look.

 

_Baby, I’m so wet. Please touch me. I need you._

“I know.” Laura almost jumped when she heard Carmilla answer her out loud. Was she reading her thoughts?

 

“Laura, I want you to touch yourself.” Carmilla commanded, with Laura giving a quick nod, her hand heading right to her own pants.

 

Carmilla chuckled. “Hold on.” She said, still smiling, getting off of Laura’s hips and hopping up to grab her jacket.

 

“Where are you going?” Laura’s hand immediately stopped its southward travels.

 

“I’ll be downstairs. But—you should do this, it’s important.”

 

Laura started to panic, and it showed in her eyes. “Why don’t you want to touch me? Is it because now I’m--”

 

“No. Not at all.” Carmilla moved back to sit on the side of the bed, cupping Laura’s cheek. “I want to too. So badly. But you’re in a new body now. Not that it isn’t delicious looking, because it is. But this is going to be new and different. And I don’t want you only tying your sexuality as a vampire to me.”

 

Laura smiled. She didn’t think it was possible to have Carmilla turn her down for sex and have it be the sweetest goddamn thing she’d ever said.

 

“So, you won’t make love to me until _I_ make love to me first?” Laura smirked, looking into dark, pooling eyes.

 

Carmilla shrugged, looking away as she blushed. “Learn your body. See what you think about your own responses to touch.” She leaned in, pressing a chaste kiss to Laura’s lips, then pulling away to leave.

 

She turned around at the doorway.

 

“Laura—take your time. Okay? You can come down and get me when you’re done.” She bit her lip and gave Laura a little wink, keeping her smile as the door clicked shut behind her.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“God, I am such an animal!” Laura exclaimed to empty air after her second orgasm, the spasms wracking through her nervous system in a way that used to be localized to one very specific area. Now, her whole body fluttered and pulsed with her center, everything shaking at once.

 

The neophyte had no idea that as a supernatural creature, she was entitled to full body orgasms, enough to blind her blissfully for a full minute before her sight would come back and her hips would start to move again, burying her own soaked had deeper inside herself. She stretched to a full four fingers this time, giving herself a steady in-and-out, appreciating how her own skin felt giving her much-needed friction at her sensitive entrance.

 

_Is this what Carmilla has been feeling every time we do this?_

It was a momentary thought, as she went back to pulling her fingers out of her core, back up to rub her clit directly. She couldn’t decide how she wanted it; she rubbed circle before slowing down to a back-and-forth motion, before deciding that fast and hard swiping was what she wanted, feeling her nipples stiffen against her tight tee while her back bowed off of the bed.

 

“Fuck. Oh fuck.” She didn’t care if anyone heard her, it’s not like she could stop herself.

 

There had been no teasing. The second Carmilla had closed the door behind her, her fingers had found her pulsing nub, rubbing furiously, only pausing to dip lower and drag up more wetness as needed.

 

“Fuuuuuck.” She let out, as her third orgasm ran through her body, this time blacking out her hearing along with her sight for a few short moments.

 

She felt her entire body turn to putty, relaxing, but experiencing a blissful tingle—as if she were glowing, feeling the high. Laura made no attempt to move. She was tired, but more so happy, finally satisfied.

 

Laura lay in an awkward position, content with letting her body hum, closing her eyes. She could smell her scent on her own hand, pulling it out from inside of her sleep pants, mindlessly wiping it on the bunched up blankets.

 

It had been a new experience, that was for sure. Laura thought about her previous self-care ritual, which always involved some kind of fantasy. A girl she had a crush on. Carmilla, once they had met what felt like a million years ago. Sometimes she had a really good and dirty fantasy about tying Carmilla up and having her way with her, or sometimes she had a mental fluff piece running a story about some sort of romantic honeymoon sex in a hot tub on a balcony overlooking the mountains.

 

Never before had she been so overwhelmed with an animalistic desire that she got herself off with no thoughts, just from feeling herself. Laura had never experience being so turned on that she was enthralled by her own wetness, spurring hip movements that she had no control over. She didn’t need a story of love or sex or a fantasy lover, she was just her; her animal side coming out to play.

 

She flashed her eyes open for a quick moment, looking at herself from the bed in the full-length mirror in the corner. Laura saw her own messed up hair, her small fangs as she grinned, her wild cat-eyes, her clothes looking disheveled and very much freshly-fucked as she grinned at herself, truly enjoying the image staring back.

 

_I like me like this._

 

She thought about bathing and going downstairs to join Carmilla, before the tiredness from her last high started closing her eyelids.

 

_Maybe just a little nap._

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Carmilla waited downstairs a good hour, knowing full well that going upstairs too soon would be interrupting Laura’s very needed self-care session. But the vampire was growing bored, sipping a glass of blood by herself at the abandoned bar.

 

She had time to contemplate handling neophyte Laura, who she knew would be like taking care of a baby, a teenager, and the intelligent grown woman that she was all at once. She was still new to feeding, and she knew for survival she would have to learn how to bite an actual living person properly, instead of the sloppy trial-and-error that accompanied the newly born when they didn’t have a guide to help them.

 

That would be coupled with Laura’s sexuality blooming, and it scared Carmilla that they had yet to see Laura shift—she was assuming she would be a panther like herself, given the feline eyes, but one never really knew in these situations. Similarly, she had no idea which supernatural powers Laura would naturally be gifted with, which they probably wouldn’t know until one or more of them manifested by accident.

 

It was too much to mull over in her head for too long unaccompanied, so she headed back upstairs, carefully to open the door to the room quietly.

 

She relaxed when she saw Laura passed out, curled up in a ball. Carmilla quietly took off her jacket, climbing into bed, pulling Laura into her arms, before noticing the vibrations from the smaller woman’s body.

 

Carmilla decided then that she loved the feeling of holding Laura as she purred in her sleep.


	4. Watched

Chapter 4

 The feeling of being watched from behind is always an unpleasant sensation.

Particularly when the city is supposed to be abandoned, except for three vampires, one very scruffy and cheerfully outnumbered human, and a handful of shopkeepers determined to wait out the crisis as they had done so many times before.

Luckily for the group two of those who refused to abandon their homes were wizards, who were working diligently on building repairs and street cleaning. She noticed they couldn’t just waive a wand and fix everything. They could work together for a day or so on a big portion of the building, raising rubble, making it disappear, pulling a wall back up to standing-the whole process must take a lot out of them, Laura thought, since after some clean-up work they would have to take a day to re-charge. The two wizards in particular fascinated the neophyte, just as much as learning about being a vampire, but she couldn’t bring herself to approach them. Laura, although bold in her usual day-to-day mannerisms, had yet to engage anyone outside of her known circle in conversation.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of them; they seemed friendly enough. It was that she simply didn’t know anything about them, or even where to start a conversation. Sorry you have to clean up after Carmilla’s nasty, evil ex? So, where do you get a robe like that around here? Nice pointy hat?

Now, sitting in the abandoned library with Carmilla, Laura finally felt like she was catching up with some of the little details that she wouldn’t learn from the sparse occupants of the city. Between Shadow history, folklore, magic, catalogues of locations of other underground cities, literature that had been written by vampires for vampires, more law books as supplements to the Law that Carmilla held, even a recipe book for making casks of blood age properly—once Carmilla had taken the neophyte to the Library chamber, she knew she would be wrapped up in research, attempting to learn as much as possible.

The library itself wasn’t particularly large. There was only one level, and the stacks weren’t even high enough to need a ladder, although sometimes Laura would attempt to climb to the top shelf just barely out of her reach before Carmilla would magically appear to give her a boost. Laura estimated only a hundred titles per section, but she was learning that each book was dense, chock full of information, texts making references to history events or magical potions that she wasn’t familiar with, so she would have to get a second text to look up the reference, which would mention something that would peak her interest, causing her to pick up a third book, and the chain continued. It was a chain that she was beginning to enjoy, finding herself fascinated with all of the new information.

But that nagging feeling of being watched was always there.

It was happening again, as she poured over the history of Carmilla’s horrific ex-girlfriend, Michaeletta, the texts from the scribes lining up fairly close with what Carmilla had initially described: someone who was mostly evil who gained tremendous powers over the years, to the point where the evil took over, taking away any drive that wasn’t evil. Some of the scribes theorized that she had been so taken over by darkness at one point due to the amount of killing required to maintain her powers that she no longer even had a personality; she was just a vehicle for evil energy to cycle through the physical world.

But, of course, those were just theories.

_Maybe I’m just freaking out._ Laura felt another chill shoot down her spine, causing her to outwardly shudder. _It’s just from reading about her. Anyone would be spooked reading about the personification of the world’s evil after having been in the same room as her—it? Is it still a her?_

Carmilla watched from across the chestnut oak table littered with books, pausing from her own research on how to stop the most powerful evil.

She too had started pulling texts from the history section, looking for examples where any type of Shadow creature, vampire or not, had reached an unfathomable level of evil, disregarding the Law completely. Specifically, she was hoping for any epic tale, no matter how fluffed or embellished, that ended in the evil being defeated. It was proving to be a voluminous task, and while the older vampire understood the importance of what they were researching, she was mostly putting up with so many hours of it for Laura’s sake. She generally did not enjoy the smell of old texts, and knowing that this was a battle likely to continue through all of eternity, she found day-to-day survival much more of a pressing need.

She knew Laura wanted to say something like “And we don’t have much time”, but that simply wasn’t true. In truth, they had all the time in the world, because of their immortality, and because their enemy dated back to time immemorial. Laura, of course, being a neophyte, still hadn’t had that reality sink in quite yet, approaching problems like a human. It was endearing to the dark-haired vampire, who enjoyed watching her girlfriend scrunch up her nose when reading about something foul or who would bite her lower lip with her tiny fangs slightly out when reading about something that engrossed her.

The older vampire watched as Laura stared at the same page as minutes ticked by. Obviously, she was no longer reading. Then Carmilla physically saw her shudder.

“Hey.” She said softly, attempting to get the neophyte’s attention without startling her. It worked, as Laura’s eyes snapped up.

“Huh?” Came the confused reply.

“It’s okay if this is too much at once. The library’s not going anywhere. We can take it one step at a time, okay?” Carmilla put her hand out on Laura’s.

They both felt it then, the feeling of being watched. Amped up sevenfold.

Laura physically got up, starting to look around.

“I felt it too. But nobody’s here.” Carmilla insisted, although Laura wasn’t sure which of the two of them she was attempting to convince.

“Somebody’s here, Carm. You said you felt it too. That’s not just me reading a spooky-make-sure-the-lights-are-still-on thriller, that means there’s something here.”

Carmilla had read one story from a history text just within the last hour that could explain a chilly presence without a physical presence, and it wouldn’t even surprise her knowing what Michaeletta was capable of these days. She just hoped she was wrong.

“Hello! Where are you!” Laura shouted out.

_Ballsy, Hollis,_ Carmilla thought. _Ballsy, but kind of stupid._

“We know you’re here, so just come on--”

That’s when books started flying off of the shelves, one at a time, as though someone was walking down the aisle flipping a row onto the floor one by one.

It was the shelf closest to Carmilla.

Laura’s eyes immediately shifted to cat. She wasn’t scared or even startled. The neophyte had a very strong, visceral reaction.

_Protect Carmilla_.

The dark-haired vampire, not amused or frightened at all by the spectacle of the books, ten now piled on the floor, looked at Laura, who had jumped in front of her.

“You leave her alone! Ah! Ughhh!” Laura shouted, before starting to moan, her arm reaching behind her to try to pull Carmilla around so she could act as her shield.

“Laura, I’m three hundred years old. Do you think some flying books can—oh holy shit.”

Carmilla saw that Laura’s eyes were cat, and her jaw was clenched, trying to fight the whiskers that were popping through.

Laura understood none of what was going on, other than the feeling of being threatened and the deep, core shaking need to protect Carmilla from the threat.

Carmilla gave Laura some space, knowing her first shift was going to take longer than once she got used to it—there was a difference in shifting out of instinct involuntarily and doing it with a conscious effort, another thing Laura was going to have to learn. Really, really have to learn.

_One in ten._

“It’s okay, Laura. Go with it. It’s part of you.” She encouraged, watching Laura’s form shrink into a ball, then reform, into the tiniest, cutest, _angriest_ white tiger cub Carmilla had ever seen.

___________________________________________________________

 


	5. Shift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay it's happening, people! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill--Season 3 Act I is UP! And it's awesome GO WATCH IT AGAIN IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT 300 TIMES ALREADY!!!  
> Sooooo gooooooood....

Agnes and Mateo both kept smirking, knowing that that tiny white tiger cub Laura was an angry, mean kitty, but also that it was so adorable they could do nothing but try to stifle their laughter.

The cub was hopping from table to table, grunting to let her mood be known, knocking things down for no reason other than being frustrated and not being able to vocalize her frustration in her current form.  Agnes and Mateo stifled their laughter as Laura knocked over yet another pair of salt and pepper shakers, followed by a napkin holder.  She had already tried to climb behind the bar to swat at the pint glasses, but Carmilla had intervened on that one.  Since then, a barstool had been demolished as a scratching post, and Laura had pulled every single one of the coats down from hanging onto the floor in the abandoned coat check room, growling the entire time.  Letting her knock everything off of the tables was an upgrade. 

“Awww I know.  You’re a big kitty, aren’t you?” Mateo said, reaching out to pet Laura, who instead went to nip at his hand, which he pulled away just in time.  “Hey!  No biting without my permission!”  Hey exclaimed. 

“Why hasn’t she shifted back?”  Agnes asked, admittedly also amused by kitten Laura. 

“It takes a while to figure out.  I was a panther cub for three full days my first time.  I had to eat a mouse to survive.  It was…actually it was delicious, now that I think about it.  She’s fine.” 

They watched as Laura finished knocking everything off the tables and moved on to an empty cardboard box that was shoved against the wall in the back.  She pawed at the wall a few times cautiously, before climbing inside. Laura enjoyed the tiny cardboard walls around her, just barely peeking out over the top.  It made her feel stealthy, like a secret guard kitty. 

_That’s right.  I can see everything.  Just try and get to Carmilla now.  See what happens.  I will claw your eyeballs out and serve them to your own eyeless face if you ever try anything again you psycho bitch._

They all heard Laura growling from inside the box.  As Carmilla knew she’d also have to shift into panther form to understand what the cub was saying, which she didn’t want to do—she wanted to watch Laura as a cub the first time in vampire form just in case, she let her growl out whatever frustrations she was feeling. “She won’t shift back until she figures out what made her change, and then she needs to force herself to feel the opposite emotion to balance out and come back.” 

Of course, Laura could hear the entire exchange, but was choosing to ignore them, still angry that something threatened Carmilla right in front of her.  She started ripping the box to shreds, using both her claws and her teeth, reveling in the feeling of shredded cardboard between her claws, enjoying how powerful her musculature felt when she was being destructive as her mind mulled over the library altercation in her head over and over again. 

_Stupid evil ex.  Stupid library ghost.  Stupid whiskers keep getting in the way.  Stupid tables that don’t have enough salt shakers._

They listened to Laura’s little growls, as Carmilla fought the urge to go over and pet Laura.  She didn’t appreciate being coddled when she was in animal form, and Laura sounded like she needed to blow off some steam. 

“Why have I never seen you shift?”  Mateo asked Agnes.  It was finally dawning on him that he’d never seen her animal form.  Did she not have that ability?  Did she sneak out when he was asleep to do it? 

“My animal form is not cat, so it doesn’t come in handy the way theirs does.”  She noticed then that Carmilla and Mateo were waiting for her to continue, ignoring that Laura had at this point shredded the entire box, and was starting to claw the curtains. 

Agnes let out a sigh.  “I’m a Selkie.  I shift into a seal.  It really only serves a purpose if I need to escape an angry mob or something like that.  Then I can travel by sea.  Otherwise, not helpful, and certainly not in a battle situation.”  

“I didn’t know we could become something other than big cats.”  Carmilla mulled over the idea in her head.  It was strange.  But then again, she hadn’t really inquired about other vampires’ shifting habits.  It seemed like an invasive question.  But now she was curious as to how many other forms there were—something she never would have even thought about before.  She thought maybe Laura’s curiosities were rubbing off on her. 

Carmilla finally noticed that Laura was shredding a red velvet curtain, having demolished the bottom to shreds, and was trying to climb up higher, clinging with her claws to the strong material. 

 

“Laura!  No!”  Carmilla got up to go pull Laura down. 

“Careful!  She’s a biter.”  Mateo said, glaring at the cub. 

_She wouldn’t bite me_.  Carmilla knew she was fine, as she went over and removed the cub by the scruff of her neck and pulling her to her body, letting her shift her paws over the vampire’s shoulder, even allowing herself to be rubbed on the back of her neck.  It was soothing.  She purred. 

“You like that, huh?”  Carmilla said through a smile.  She kept kneading the back of Laura’s neck, feeling the cub relax.  Laura finally stopped thinking about everything that threatened Carmilla’s life, _their_ life, relaxing into the arms around her tiny, furry body.  Suddenly, it wasn’t a tiny, furry body anymore, and she felt Carmilla stumble a bit, not expecting her to suddenly gain over a hundred pounds back into a full vampire body. 

 

Laura enjoyed that they mostly had the city to themselves.  It felt like it was their city, not just a city that they happened to stumble upon.  Going from a few thousand residents to under a hundred made the whole setting feel smaller. 

Even though Laura still hadn’t gathered the courage to talk to anyone, especially the wizards that fascinated her so much, just the change from strangers to people who smile and nod at each other as they cross paths made her feel at home.  The emptiness of the streets also meant she felt more comfortable in public.  Not that she hadn’t felt comfortable before, but now that her sex drive was amped up to a thousand, it certainly was a nice change to walk through city streets where she didn’t hesitate to pull Carmilla into a side street or abandoned shop when she wanted to make out. 

Carmilla had her legs out straight beneath her, using a tombstone as the back of a chair with Laura’s head in her lap.  They had opened a picnic blanket, content to use the cemetery as their own personal park.  The older vampire watched as Laura scrunched her face up involuntarily, which meant her thoughts were running wild. 

“Hey, cutie.”  She said, tapping Laura’s nose with one hand as the other continued running through her hair.  “What’s going on in there?”  She moved to tap the smaller woman’s forehead.  Laura’s immediately smile told her that it was nothing serious. 

Carmilla didn’t want to admit until that moment that she was deeply hoping Laura wasn’t suddenly regretting being turned into a vampire.  It was most certainly too late for that. 

“So much.”  Was Laura’s response. 

“You can tell me anything, you know that, right?” 

 

“I know.”  She did.  Laura truly believed that.  She started to think how to organize her thoughts into words, with Carmilla resuming her hands in her hair, giving her the space to think before speaking.  She looked up at the perpetual night sky that they were under, noticing that the stars actually twinkled. It looked real.  But she knew it wasn’t. But were they?  Were they still real stars if they were supernatural?

Laura sighed.  “I guess I’m just—I don’t know, impatient?  Like I want to do and know everything all at once.  I feel like I’m just starting a journey when I want to skip to the battle at the end.” 

Carmilla nodded.  She couldn’t really sympathize; when she had been rebirthed she reveled in each step of the journey.  She loved figuring out each of her abilities one by one, even if it had meant learning the hard way and sometimes ending up in pain or having to hide from angry villagers for a few days.  Still, she loved the process of learning, thinking about experiences, philosophizing those experiences into and out of universal truths. 

Laura, she had learned over the past week, was not the same.  Laura was results driven.  Laura craved instant gratification, always looking for an “a-ha!” moment.  She knew Laura hated that she hadn’t figured out how to cat shift since the first time, even though she really, really wanted to explore her tiger form more. 

“It’s everything.  It’s a lot to take in, you know?  Like I want to do everything at once but I don’t know where to start.”  Carmilla nodded.

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“You want my vampire bucket list?”  They both chuckled. 

“I supposed I do.”  Laura stopped Carmilla’s hands from running through her hair, moving to lace their fingers together.  “I want to know what all of my abilities are.”  Carmilla nodded, mentally making a list. 

“I want to control my shifts.”  Laura started counting on Carmilla’s fingers.  “I want to know about magic.”  She felt Carmilla stiffen on that third count, but she didn’t interrupt her so Laura continued. “I want your evil, evil ex-gone for good.” 

_Well, we both want that, cutie_. 

“I want our sex life back.”  Laura blushed, even though she sounded more confident than she actually felt.  Carmilla nodded.  She knew Laura wanted her.  The way Laura’s hands roamed he body from the gentlest kiss had made that clear.  But she promised herself she wasn’t going to give in to that until Laura understood her own body as much as possible.  The last thing she wanted was to be in the throes of passion with her lover, only to have some sort of loud noise go off and suddenly have her naked body be straddled by a large white tiger.

Truth be told, however, the ‘new to vampirism’ abstinence period was not on Carmilla’s list of favorite things. 

Carmilla was content to listen to Laura, nodding along.  She wasn’t expecting the tables to turn. 

“What about you?  What do you want?”  Laura asked, staring up at the dark obsidian eyes. 

“What?”  Carmilla was taken by surprise. 

“It’s not all about me.  There are two of us here.”  Laura said, smiling.  She loved catching Carmilla off-guard.  She made the cutest faces, not that the dark-haired vampire would ever put up with being called “cute”.

Carmilla thought for a moment.  “Well, I want all the things you just listed.”

“Carm, you already know how to control your cat.”

“No, I meant I want that for you.  I want all of those things.”  She lifted he eyes to lock directly onto Laura.  “All of it.” 

“But those are all things I want that you want to support me in.  What do _you_ want.  There has to be something you want, deep down in there.”  Laura clearly was not going to let it go. 

What did Carmilla want? She was immortal.  She didn’t have goals, things to strive for—she just existed, doing whatever she wanted day by day.  And now that she was with Laura, that occupied most of her thoughts. 

She thought for a long enough pause that Laura thought maybe she wasn’t going to get an answer. 

“I have an idea.”  Carmilla said suddenly.  “I want to show you something.”  Carmilla pulled Laura to her feet.  Laura followed, keeping her hand in Carmilla’s, as they walked through the city.  She thought maybe they were going back to the library, but when they passed it clearly that thought was over.  And they passed the tavern.  And any of the shops and restaurants they would usually stop in. 

“Carm, where are we—oh.”  Laura now saw that they were face to face with the door that lead out of the city. 

“Do you trust me?”  Carmilla asked, keeping one hand in Laura’s, while pressing one hand to the handle.  When she was met with a quick nod, even though she could hear how hard Laura swallowed, she pulled the large, heavy door open, leading them through.


	6. As Below, So Above

 

 It hurt.  Laura was unprepared for how much it would hurt not having seen light from the actual sun for a couple of months.  Her broody, dark haired companion had thought that going up to the surface at dusk while the light exposure was minimal would be okay, but that wasn’t taking into account how light sensitive Laura’s eyes were since rebirthing. 

Laura struggled and squinted, feeling the headache come and go.  Even though it was just wisps of light peeking through slits dividing tall buildings and poking through the leaves of an occasional tree, it was enough that she felt like she was staring directly into a noon-day sun. 

Carmilla could hear the little grimaces from the smaller woman, but was giving her time to adjust.  All Laura had to do was say that she wanted to go back down below, and she would have bolted them to the nearest subway station and brought them back.  The light was uncomfortable for her as well, but not nearly as much as it was for a neophyte.  It hurt her to see Laura in any kind of discomfort, but it would her hurt more in the long run if Laura didn’t learn how to go from dark to light. 

_One in ten._

Laura was trying to take in her surroundings through the squinting and dodging to avoid any direct light contact.  There was so much stimuli at once that she couldn’t discern individual shops, just that there were a lot of signs with a lot of different colors.  The noises weren’t individual to her ears yet, even though she could pick up individual conversations over the street cars, even clearly hearing the trains running below them through the subway grates. 

She couldn’t, however, hear far enough to pick up on any sounds of the underground city that she knew full well existed.  Up here, there was no sign that there had been thousands of vampires, werewolves, wizards, necromancers, or any type of Shadow creatures living contently below.  She wondered briefly just how far down the surface of the earth she had ventured, blindly following the vampire she fell in love with. 

It had been a dangerous decision.  She knew, at the time, it could be a decision that could get her killed.

It did.

She had no regrets.

Carmilla clearly knew where they were going, so she followed the older vampire’s body language.  Laura didn’t know that Carmilla was purposefully leading her near the tallest buildings that would let through the least amount of light.  She wasn’t aware that Carmilla’s hand on her waist, guiding her in and out of oncoming pedestrian traffic was to make sure she didn’t get hit with stray sunrays. 

Sometimes the sweetest gestures are the ones that Laura doesn’t even know are happening. 

When Laura relaxed after walking for a while, Carmilla stopped steering her, simply taking her hand, seeing the small woman squinting less and less, starting to take in more and more of her surroundings.  The light peeking through the sunset was more pink and orange now, and not causing a headache.  The walked down an almost empty side street, seeing an angry looking man step out of a piercing shop, having clearly just added an eyebrow ring to his collection of five rings in each ear, his septum, lip, and dozens of tattoos, all with images of weapons, a variety of guns, swords, knives, even a grenade, encompassing a variety of colors.  The eyebrow was clearly just done, and immediately red and swollen.  Carmilla knew to not make eye contact with the man immediately, as he didn’t look excited at his most recent addition to his jewelry collection. He turned and started walking toward them so quickly it startled Laura, but not because of his appearance.

Once he was facing them, snarling at nothing in particular, Laura saw it.  The small, monkey-like creature attached to the man, clinging to his back with bright red eyes that glowed. It was small, with a ringed tail, with fangs hanging out of its mouth looking like anything but a friendly house pet. It was hanging on to him, yet the man continued on as though he didn’t even notice.  Laura gasped, causing the man to give her a rude side-eyed glance. 

Once he was out of earshot, Carmilla held her breath, waiting for things to start clicking in Laura’s head. 

“So. The monkey…” 

“Demon.”  Was Carmilla’s quick response. 

“Demon?!” It took a lot to scare Laura these days, but mentioning that they just passed a man with a demon just might do it. 

“It’s attached itself to him.  Most likely he has no idea. He doesn’t even feel it on him, but he will feel its negative emotions.” 

“Oh.”  Laura suddenly had way too many thoughts at once. All she knew from the five seconds she had spent looking at the man as he passed was that he looked absolutely miserable.  “So—I…can’t we help him?” The way Laura’s voice turned up at the end of the sentence implied she already knew the answer. 

Carmilla immediately shook her head.  “It’s up to him.  When a demon attaches itself, it’s up to the carrier to do what he needs to do to move on from it.  Until then, he’s going to have a rough time of it.  Don’t worry; they can’t attach to us.”

“Only humans?”  Laura asked hopefully, moving to wrap her arm around Carmilla’s. 

“Technically, humans and werewolves, but I don’t associate with werewolves anyway.” 

“Oh.”  Laura continued along, keeping her arm wrapped around Carmilla’s.  She thought about it as they walked—Carmilla didn’t have any friends who were werewolves.  She had seen some around, sometimes in wolf form, sniffing in the parks underground, playing, chasing each other—and while Carmilla had associated herself with other kinds of Shadows, never had she introduced her to a werewolf. 

“Why?”  She couldn’t help herself.

“Why what?”

“Why don’t you like werewolves?” 

“What’s to like? Fleas, too much rough-housing, serious canine superiority complexes, they smell…you get that we’re technically, cats, right? Werewolves are disgusting and I don’t ever wish to converse with one.  I can’t believe we even let the filthy mutts in the city.”

“Carmilla Karnstein! That’s the most bigoted, prejudiced thing I’ve ever heard come from you!  I’m sure there are some wolves that are perfectly nice and you don’t always have to be such a judgmental--” Laura stopped herself when she realized Carmilla was smirking at her.  “You’re yanking my chain, aren’t you?” 

“Can’t help myself sometimes, cutie.  I don’t have a problem with werewolves.”  Laura hit her arm playfully, wrapping herself tighter around the limb. 

The sun had gone down to an acceptable level, the two content to wander and watch.  Laura couldn’t help but notice how normal it felt, walking around a big city with her girlfriend, just happy to be in each other’s company.  Laura started leaning in every so often, giving the dark-haired woman a peck on the cheek, the gesture returned at every street corner pause or side-stop to window shop. 

The neighborhoods changed as they walked, with Laura instinctively checking her pockets, as though she needed to make sure they hadn’t been pick-pocketed.  Then the realization that she literally had nothing to be afraid of crossed her mind. 

She was basically immortal.  And stronger than any human mugger. 

Never again would she have to worry about leaving home with bear spray, or with an emergency number programmed into her phone.  She had complete, real, true freedom. She could literally go anywhere she wanted.  She could do just about anything.

It was a sudden sense of power that had Laura’s head up high, her hands on Carmilla getting a little bolder, moving occasionally from her lower back to her ass, throwing in a squeeze. 

“My, somebody’s feeling frisky.”  Carmilla’s smile let Laura know that she wasn’t mad.  The flash of feline in her eyes told a very specific story, along with a smile that was too coy and not coy enough all at once.

“What if I was?  What are you going to do about it?”  Laura asked, daring Carmilla in the middle of a large city block, balancing wanting to drag Carmilla into an alley like an animal, but also wanting to see how the older woman would react. 

It was then that a group of women passed by them, laughing amongst themselves.  Laura could have cared less about the sudden distraction, until she saw one very scantily-clad blonde not hiding the fact that she was checking Carmilla out.  Leering, openly at the leather-covered body, the woman’s tongue peeking out of her mouth in the process.

Then, Carmilla was no longer smiling as she heard Laura _growl_. 

Not a human, pissed-that-someone-looked-at-my girlfriend growl, but her cat growl.  A deep noise of offense that was distinctly non-human, and _loud._ If that was Laura’s growl, she didn’t want to think about what it would sound like when Laura was full-sized and roared.

Carmilla pulled them immediately into the first open door, which happened to be an old independent movie theater. 

“Laura, look at me.”  She said, pulling them to the side, hands cradling both sides of Laura’s face.  Her eyes already had their feline slants and had turned blue.  She tried to calm Laura, stroking her hair and her face, leaning in to whisper in her ear. 

“You know I would normally encourage you to shift.  It’s part of who you are.  But not here, baby.  I need you to stay with me as Laura.”  Laura closed her eyes, trying to push down the rage, the knee-jerk reaction that she wished she had claws to go scrap off the offending stranger’s face.  “Focus on my voice.  Stay with me.”  Carmilla cooed, watching as Laura struggled. 

Even though her eyes were closed and she was very clearly trying to stop her shift, she was still human—not a single whisker had popped out, so Carmilla continued her soothing whispers.  “I’m here.  I’m just yours Laura.  Do you get that?  Hmm?  You have nothing to worry about. I want you to stay you right now, cutie.  I’m not going anywhere and nothing is going to happen.” 

Laura felt herself calming down.  The ball that was in the pit of her stomach was dissolving, letting Carmilla stroke her head, wrapping her arms around the taller woman’s waist. 

“Hey!  If you two are buying tickets, you have to do it now!  Show starts in five!”  The ticket taker, who the two had not previously noticed, shouted from behind the glass.  Carmilla rolled her eyes, realizing this random guy had probably just seen the whole intimate moment, and really just wanted him to shut up before Laura got upset and tried to shift again. 

“Fine!”  She said quickly, moving to the booth, dragging Laura with her, who looked confused. 

Carmilla quickly bought two tickets, not even bothering to see what moving she had just paid for, bringing Laura inside.  While there were a few people in the lobby, the place was by no means full.  Carmilla figured she could just find the emptiest movie showing, where she could take Laura somewhere to calm down.  She peeked through the doors past the ticket takers, trying to see which room people were walking into, so that they could walk into the opposite.  She didn’t notice that while she leaned to her left to look, Laura was leaning to her right at the snack bar, noticing something that Carmilla wasn’t.

“Carm—are they serving blood in here?” 

 


	7. Under Her Spell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super-duper bonus points for anyone who gets what movie they're watching :)

_Might as well use this as a learning opportunity._ Carmilla knew as soon as Laura saw that she could order blood in a regular human establishment that it would remind her that they hadn’t eaten in a few hours. 

Which meant Laura was suddenly hungry enough she could cry.

“Please, let’s stop for snacks.  Are we really staying for this movie?  I mean, we can, but if not we can still have a snack, right?  Just a small one.  Just a little.”  Laura’s eyes were wide, staring at the promise of the warm, red liquid that she needed in that moment with such intensity she wondered if it were more an addiction than a hunger.  The smaller vampire’s hands began to twist together, an anxious response to the hunger that was making itself known.

Carmilla did not like that the theater was openly catering to vampires.  It meant that a fair chuck of the vampire city, when they fled after the riots, simply moved up instead of dispersing.  It was unusual.  However, she didn’t want Laura to get used to always having blood available on tap.

Most cities would most certainly _not_ have fresh squeezed human for breakfast in the morning, but they would have humans walking around with plenty of a supply slushing through their veins.  Including those in this theater. 

“We’ll get you a snack.  But first, let’s go get some seats.” 

Laura all but whined. Carmilla pulled her quickly into the theater by her hand, pulling them to the back. 

“Great.  Now we have seats.  Snack please?”  Laura said, not bothering to whisper even though a film had started playing, not looking at the screen even once, even though Carmilla at least threw a glance at the front.

“Yes.  We should have a snack.  Pick one.”  Carmilla said, motioning to the people in the rows below them.  There were only about a dozen other people in the theater with them, but Laura was so hungry at just the suggestion of blood that she could hear the liquid pulsing through individual veins. 

“I—what?  I can’t—how?”  Laura stuttered when she understood what Carmilla meant.  Did Carmilla really think Laura was just going to fly out of her seat and start attacking people’s necks?  Sure, the instinct was there, but she was still fully in control of her actions.  But a moment ago, she wasn’t.  She was very, very close to landing herself in the Bronx Zoo.  What if she also lost control of her vampire form?

_But I stopped it.  Carmilla helped, but I stopped the turn._

“Well, let’s start here.  Who looks the healthiest?”  Carmilla avoided asking who looked the most delicious, knowing for sure that would lead Laura to storm out and insist upon drinking from a glass.  She had to ween Laura into feeding directly from a vein gently.

Laura scanned the room.  Truth be told, she really did want to bite all of them.  It was like having a starving human stroll through an apple orchard—just looking for the right one to pick.  But she couldn’t just go up and jump on someone without causing a panic, could she? Carmilla watched as Laura’s eyes darted around the room, licking her lips while thinking about which to choose. 

It was easier to see by the light of the movie playing, and the string-orchestra score playing loudly through the speakers on the sides covered them, nobody noticing that there were two fairly pale young women in the back watching the audience instead of watching the evening classic.

“That one.”  Laura pointed to woman who was just about mid-everything.  Middle aged, mid-sized, medium height—even her hair was medium.  But Laura had been correct in choice, she by far smelled like the strongest, healthiest of the bunch, and also from what Carmilla could pick up the only non-smoker.  “But how?” 

“That’s where I come in, cutie.”  Carmilla knew this would work, but was starting to feel a tremendous amount of pressure.  Laura had to learn how to bite a living, breathing person in order to survive.  There were skills that went beyond instinct—Carmilla full well knowing that if Laura was following instinct she would have simply pounced on someone, consequences be damned.  Instead, the more subtle, effective approach is what Carmilla had to teach her.  Literally _had_ to.  It was imperative that Laura learned this skill. 

It was absolutely necessary that Laura learn how to cast a glamour.  That part would take a few practice sessions.

Laura watched as Carmilla got up to go talk to their appointed “snack”.  It was then that the spiral of internal monologue, while politely remaining internal, started swirling in the neophyte’s head. 

_Should we just be biting random strangers?  I mean, what if she has a cold?  Like she isn’t showing symptoms or whatever, but it’s in there sometimes like a day or two ahead of time.  And also, I thought biting was supposed to be sexy.  But I don’t want to be sexy with anyone but Carm._

Laura watched as Carmilla pretended to recognize the woman from some party they had ‘met at’ years ago.  She knew Carmilla was whispering, Laura enjoying that she could hear it clear as day as a vamp.  She could zone in over the scene on the screen of the characters in a noisy train station, choosing to select hearing the whispered conversation over the surround sound.  Mostly, she knew she would recognize Carmilla’s voice anywhere, choosing it over any other sound.

At least Carmilla wasn’t setting the trap by hitting on her.

_Would I even be mad if she was hitting on her to get her over here?  I’m sooo hungry I could eat a horse.  The whole horse._

Carmilla stood up, the selected woman following, seeming to really believe Carmilla’s story that they had met before.  The two walked with their heads ducked, movie still playing, moving silently to the back where Laura was sitting. 

“Laura, this is Joanna.  Joanna- _sit_.” Carmilla ordered, while the woman seemed all too happy to oblige.  Laura watched with bewildered eyes as Carmilla seemed to have complete control over the woman. 

_How is she doing this?_

Carmilla’s eyes were feline, and Laura watched how they slightly glowed every time the experienced vampire put an idea into the woman’s head, and watched it become her reality. 

_This is so wrong._

_I am so hungry.  I can be wrong and full at the same time._

_How is she even doing this?_

“Do you remember when we were at that wedding and you told me to roll up your sleeves?  Laura, let’s help Joanna remember.”  Carmilla was in complete control, as the woman nodded.  Laura did indeed roll up the sleeve of the woman’s arm that was on her side, immediately hearing the exposed pulse. 

The prey had a huge smile on her face, happy to exist in the pretend memory that Carmilla had planted about meeting at a wedding.  And letting two women roll up her sleeves, each taking an arm. 

“Remember, you asked me to do this?  Hmm?  Shall Laura and I demonstrate?”  Carmilla flashed her eyes again, implanting a memory of being bitten by a vampire and enjoying it. 

“See the veins here?  How they form a “Y”?”  Carmilla asked quietly, as Laura looked at the wrist she was holding and nodded. “Good, Laura.  That’s good.  You want to make sure your teeth go in right here.”  Carmilla pointed to the larger vein, showing with two fingers where to bite. 

Under Carmilla’s thrall, the woman could only smile and nod.  Once the glamour was completely in place, each vampire holding a wrist, Carmilla simply nodded at Laura, pulling the woman’s wrist up and sinking her teeth in. 

Laura followed suit, her tiny fangs making much less of an impression on the woman’s skin than Carmilla’s long, razor sharp teeth that could be considered weapons.  Laura sucked greedily, feeling the growl in her belly feel fuller and fuller. It was warming, finally relieving the hunger pangs.  It was the same sensation she used to feel having a bowl of soup on a winter’s day. Comfort.  Fulfillment.

“Remember to close the wound.”  Carmilla said suddenly, snapping Laura out of her happy place, swirling saliva on the piercings she had made.  Laura grunted, knowing that Carmilla was signaling the end of mealtime. 

_How do I do—just swirl your spit around until—oh there it goes.  Its closing!  It works!_

Carmilla ran her hand up and down the arm she still held after healing.

“Joanna, darling, didn’t you say that you were going to go sit with your friends after we chatted?  They’re probably wondering where you went.”  Carmilla said, flashing her eyes. 

“I should go sit with my friends.  I can’t stay here.”  The woman parroted back, smile still plastered on her face.  She got up and walked back up the aisle, not having the same courtesy to duck and not block the film that she had on the walk to the back.

Laura just now for the first time looked up at the film, not having noticed when they walked in that it was an old black-and-white Ingrid Bergman classic.  She was full, happy even, having long forgotten about wanting to tear the face off of the woman who had leered at Carmilla like a common streetwalker.  After all, she _should_ want to tear the face off of someone so rude, and vile…

Okay, Laura had _almost_ forgotten about it.  But at the very least she didn’t feel like she was about to turn, and the movie playing wasn’t half back.  As she watched the lead character falling in love with Gregory Peck, a man who had lost his memory, didn’t know who he was, and couldn’t remember his name.  But somehow, he was still him even though he was becoming someone other than whomever he used to be, and his psychologist fell in love with him while trying to help him regain his memory. 

It was old.  It was romantic in a sneaky way, with none of the normal overt romance tropes from movies of the time.  It was honest, with just enough mystery to keep Laura’s interest.  It was such a _Carmilla_ choice, even if she was somewhat startled into purchasing a ticket.

Laura wrapped both of her arms around Carmilla’s, enjoying the accidental dinner and a movie.  She lay her head on Carmilla’s shoulder, feeling the kiss on her crown. 

Laura had been a lot of things since Carmilla had rebirthed her.  Curious, afraid, bold, hungry, territorial—but contentment was a first.

_I should get all tiger-y in public more often_.

 

 

 

 


	8. No More Words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm LOVING Act II! Provided some nice inspiration :)

 

Laura lay in bed awake next to Carmilla, letting her thoughts run wild.  The older vampire was, of course, dead to the world, on her stomach, taking in deep, relaxed breaths.  The passed out woman, arms out with one casually draped over Laura reminded her of Carmilla as a cat, like a sleeping cross between human and animal that existed within the vampire.  Laura had always noticed that was how Carmilla slept after a meal, and was surprised she didn’t also want to pass out immediately upon returning home.

_Home.  Is that what this is now?  Is this city our home?_

_Why don’t I feel bad about biting someone?_

It was the thought that swirled and swirled and swirled around, as she stared up at the ceiling, not even a circling fan to look at.  Laura thought she should feel guilty.  Or worried about the random woman’s well-being.

Or remember her name, which she didn’t.  Or what the woman had even been wearing.  Would she even recognize her if they passed on the street? All she could remember is the moment she went from _so hungry_ to relieved.  And it bothered her that she didn’t feel bad about it. 

_I shouldn’t feel bad.  My teeth are still adorable-sized.  Carmilla is the one who basically has two steak knives hanging from her gums.  She should feel bad._

Laura sighed to herself.  Of course Carmilla didn’t feel bad.  And now she understood, finally:  just because logically she should feel bad about something doesn’t mean the actual emotion will appear.  She felt no less off about eating a person than she ever had about eating a bowl of cereal.  There was a tiny underlying pang of guilt for how much shit she used to give Carmilla for being so nonchalant about death and violence.  At least she could honestly say she understood the difference between knowing how one should feel and it actually happening.

It eventually clicked in Laura’s head that she wasn’t going to be able to talk herself into feeling bad about something. 

_It’s not like I killed someone.  And the woman was there willingly.  Well, mostly willingly—if you ignore that Carmilla basically brainwashed that woman._

Laura still didn’t understand that part. 

The tiny, gay vampire didn’t notice that as she had carried on entire discussions with herself in her own head, she had been inching closer to Carmilla, absent-mindedly stroking her hair. 

_She’s so careful with me.  I wonder if this is what chivalry looked like in 1698. If this is Carmilla being chivalrous, well…okay it actually doesn’t offend me. But maybe it should.  Maybe I should be figuring out this stuff on my own, so she’s not weighed down with ‘oh how will Laura ever learn how to eat’ or ‘what if Laura can’t control her cat’ or whatever else goes on in Carmilla’s head._

The whole time Laura was stroking Carmilla’s hair, continuing to start up at the ceiling, Carmilla had awoken, eyes wide open staring at Laura, who didn’t even notice.  She couldn’t see Laura’s eyes from where she was laying, but somehow she knew they were darting around as Laura ran through who-knows-what in her head. 

It didn’t worry Carmilla that Laura wasn’t sleeping.  It worried her that she couldn’t sleep, and instead of getting up and doing whatever she wanted to do, she lay in bed, as though she _should_ be sleeping.  Laura was usually waaaaay past being run by human world rules, like living by the clock or just getting into bed because she ‘should’. 

She began running her hand up and down Laura’s arm, feeling the skin underneath her fingertips.  Carmilla loved that Laura was always so soft, although now she felt the strength of the forearm, undoubtedly from Laura’s natural vampire strength.  She always loved Laura’s arms; the musculature of her shoulders, the way her hands gripped with short, powerful fingers.  She continued running her hand up and down, feeling Laura sigh again and then swallow, her pulse starting to quicken. 

It was then she could tell Laura felt her touch, shifting her thoughts from whatever had her watching the ceiling to the warmth of her body. 

Laura felt Carmilla’s hand move more firmly, slowly running up the inside of her forearm, covering her bicep, letting her fingertips trace a circle around her shoulder before running back down again.  The neophyte felt her body spring to attention, which she learned was to be no surprise.  These days all it took was a brush against her skin from Carmilla to send every nerve ending into full attention. 

The dark-haired woman couldn’t help herself, moving in closer, still not saying a word as she nuzzled into Laura’s neck, feeling the smaller woman hum in response, moving her arms around to grip Carmilla to her body. 

Laura closed her eyes, wondering if Carmilla could sense how much she wanted her.  She shifted, moving more of her body under Carmilla’s, letting the older woman know that she wanted to feel her full weight on top of her, still cradling her head into her neck.  She kneaded her hands through soft, raven locks in time with the sucking and licking along her pulse. 

She was sure Carmilla could control her pulse at this point with just the pressure of her tongue, feeling the warmth of Carmilla respond and rest on top of her.

When the warm mouth gave up its suction and moved in to kiss her lips, Laura opened her mouth immediately, signaling her needs with the warm wetness of her tongue, two muscles sliding against each other.  She loved feeling Carmilla dip into her mouth while on top of her, pressing down with her body, breast-to-breast, causing a moan to release into their joined mouths. 

Carmilla could feel Laura’s power now, feel her body strength, the thighs gripping around her hips, the warmth radiating between their centers and she continued dipping into Laura’s mouth, beginning to rock their bodies.  She felt when Laura’s fangs dropped, knowing her own soon followed, making her own desire amplify, coming out as a whimper. 

Laura pulled away for air, looking up at Carmilla with feline eyes, panting through her fangs, seeing the woman on top of her in a similar state.  She continued moving their bodies together, hoping Carmilla would understand her need that they had been ignoring.  They slowly blinked at each other, taking long, deep breaths, Carmilla taking the time to admire Laura in her new form. Laura’s tongue peeked out from inside her pink mouth, grazing a fang. 

It sparked Carmilla into action, and suddenly everything was moving quickly, letting her animal instincts take over.  Carmilla crashed her mouth back into Laura’s, doing her best to rip off their clothing, only pulling their mouths away when absolutely necessary. 

Laura’s hands were just as frantic, as they aggressively tore at each other’s shirts, desperate to get to the skin underneath, needing to rub into softness rather than the harsh cotton blends that separated them.  Once their tops were removed, they struggled to continue kissing, each panting into the other’s mouth, desperate to get their pajama pants off without losing contact, with Carmilla finally getting two pairs down to their feet, and kicking them off, slamming her body back down onto Laura, feeling fingertips grip her back, pulling her down. 

Her tongue plunged into Laura’s mouth, feeling the small woman wrap as much of her body around her as they rocked their centers together, not caring that they were making a sloppy messy, their collective wetness rubbing each other urgently.  The sound of Carmilla blowing out harsh breaths through her nose while keeping their mouths sealed was driving Laura crazy, her arms and legs firmly around Carmilla’s body, keeping them sealed together.

Every time Laura pumped her hips up, keeping her legs spread to let her clit bump into Carmilla’s, she gripped the skin of the woman on top of her, using her body to convey what her mind couldn’t coherently put together through their pants.

_Don’t you dare stop._

Carmilla’s hips ground down moving faster, knowing Laura could start to feel the sweat dripping down the small of her back. 

It made Laura grip her harder, starting to mew into their pants, hips starting to move fast and more aggressively, with their kiss becoming a wet mess of hard breathing and tongues trying to touch and taste every inch of each other. Laura was already used to how wet she got as a vampire, feeling the orgasm start humming through her whole body, hoping Carmilla was right on edge with her. 

Once Carmilla felt hands move from gripping her back to gripping her ass, Laura controlling her grinding, she started to shake, knowing she was about to go over the edge.  She let Laura lead her movements thrusting at the young woman’s wetness, humping her with no control, until she broke the kiss, throwing her head back with a shout.  Laura pulled Carmilla to her center, keeping her hands on the fleshy cheeks, letting Carmilla shake against her core, Carmilla continuing her movements, but starting to slow down. 

Carmilla slowed her grind, still letting her sensitive clit feel Laura’s wet slit, knowing that Laura hadn’t come yet, but needing to collect herself.  After a few breaths, she looked at Laura’s cat eyes with her own blackened slits, before reaching down to lift Laura’s left leg up over her shoulder, keeping eye contact before returning their cunts to their previous rhythm. 

It took less than three seconds of rubbing before Laura’s pants were right back in a pointed staccato, hips responding to feeling how soaked Carmilla was, the warmth pulsing between them.  Carmilla grinded hard, feeling Laura’s body start to shake, knowing the full body orgasm was starting.  With Laura’s leg pinned between them, Carmilla continued pumping her hips, breaking eye contact to let her fangs drag open-mouthed down Laura’s neck. 

Laura’s hands gripped Carmilla’s ass cheeks so hard when she came that the vampire wondered if her lover meant to rip them off, feeling the body beneath her stiffen, breaths gasping out of her mouth, then feeling her body move from tensed to completely relaxed. 

Carmilla released the leg she had been gripping up between them, relieved that in vampire form she wouldn’t have given Laura so much as a slight bruise.  She knew if they had tried that, and she had pumped that hard into her has a human, she’d be so bruised in the morning she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself. 

_She strong now,_ Carmilla thought, _as strong on the outside as she always was on the inside._

Carmilla stayed on top, letting them both come down, giving Laura’s neck and shoulders little kisses and nips, smiling when she felt the gesture returned, loving how Laura’s tongue knew to lick around her earlobe. 

No words were spoken that night.  They no longer needed them. 


	9. Cannot Be Unseen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. a) Super loving this season, b) SUPER excited that there is going to be a Carmilla movie and possibly more media after that, and c) I guess some of these other characters are growing on me, so here we go...  
> (ps--thanks for the props, peeps. I feel surrounded by kudos hugs in the best possible way!)

Carmilla sipped on her espresso from the shop patio, as though she hadn’t just served it to herself, playing barista and customer since the owners had fled after the riots.  She, Mateo, Agnes, and Laura were all becoming accustomed to helping themselves to whatever they wanted from any storefronts that were abandoned by their owners.  Usually, when Laura attempted to chastise her, Carmilla answered simply with a “don’t worry, I’ll pay them back,” followed by the kind of wink that Laura knew meant she wasn’t going to pay them back at all. 

In the meantime, as Carmilla and her entourage helped themselves to whatever they pleased, Laura had finally gotten a backbone.  Laura Hollis, who generally was fairly bold and strong, had spent most of her time underground afraid of the wizards. 

Maybe afraid wasn’t the right word.  In awe of, or intimidated by the wizards might be more accurate.  Either way, the tiny gay’s curiosity finally caught up with her, and she had struck up a conversation with one of the wizards.  Laura hadn’t noticed that every time she had seen the pair of wizards around town, they actually were never the same two wizards.  There was a whole commune of wizards, Laura was learning, who were more than happy to show off their talents to the young vampire. And to Laura’s surprise, they were really, _really_ nice.  The very first time she got up the nerve to talk to them, they immediately sat down with her, even offering her a cup of chai.  She accepted, hoping they would be able to tell she was a vampire and that it might have a dash of blood.

It didn’t. But it was still a kind gesture.

Carmilla, on the other hand, was less interested in spending time with them.  It’s not that they weren’t perfectly nice, it’s just that—well, Carmilla had already had her fill of hippie burnouts at Woodstock. Both the original and the revival.  And she as over “hey man, do you see swirls?  I see swirls!” much more than Laura was. 

Carmilla continued sipping her bitter beverage on the outside patio, watching a pair of wizards teach Laura how to shoot fireworks from her hands.  She wasn’t about to tell Laura what to do, but she also wanted to be close in case one of the tie-dyed, pointed hat idiots did something that would blow Laura’s hands off. 

The fact that they would grow back wasn’t the point.

“You just gotta feel it, man.  It’s like this:” The man with the long, gray hair, wearing a tie-dyed vest with no shirt underneath, and a yellow pointy hat immediately started humming a tune Laura was unfamiliar with, reminding her of centuries old waltzes.  His eyes stayed wide, conducting an imaginary orchestra. 

Whatever this invisible orchestra was playing, this man was taking very, very seriously.

Carmilla couldn’t stop herself from laughing, hiding her smirk behind the tiny cup.  When the second man joined in the imaginary conducting, also in a pointy yellow hat, but with a long, salt-and-pepper beard and no hair on his head, the exact opposite of the other man, Laura also couldn’t hold back her giggles. 

“That’s beautiful, Jim.  Really keep it going.”  The man with the beard said to the man who was humming, both continuing to conduct their pretend orchestras. They began dancing around, conducting in all directions, to everyone and nobody in particular.    

“Lovely, Jim.  Do the viola solo.”  At that one, Carmilla’s laughter was no longer hidden behind her cup, now trying to cover her mouth with her hand as her shoulders shook, keeping her eyes down at the table.  She knew if she made eye contact with Laura she would absolutely lose it. 

It was finally clicking in Laura’s head. The magical wizards who cleaned up from the riots, who installed magical stars in an underground sky, who basically created the entire environment in which they lived, were completely, irrevocably, batshit crazy. 

Or on acid.

Or both. 

“Wonderful colors.  Do you see them?”  The man with the beard asked, as Jim continued humming. 

Both Laura and Carmilla watched as the two went into a trace, trying not to be too rude at them and laugh outright. 

Until colored sparks began shoot out of both men’s fingertips, up at the sky that they were staring at while they danced. 

Laura’s face immediately stopped smirking, watching the display go off, blue, red, and pink being shot up in lines, exploding and then crackling down.  Even the smell of the display was authentic; the scent of burnt material mixed with crisp air bring back all kinds of memories. Laura was mesmerized by the talent of what she had been convinced a few moments ago were nothing but aging Aquarian life-drop outs.  She was processing watching a real-life fireworks display while underground, frozen on the spot, staring up at the sky. 

She felt two thin but strong arms wrap around her waist, a body pressing into her from behind, followed by a lingering kiss on the cheek.  Carmilla had abandoned her post at the patio, leaving her dishes unattended to be collected by no one, watching the display in the sky. 

The wizards had graduated to larger, crackling explosions, where the offshoots looked like an electric weeping willow.  The display was spectacular enough to keep their eyes off of the ridiculous dancing and up into the sky. 

“I still don’t get how they do it.  They tried to explain it to me, but I think they answer every question with whatever Jimi Hendrix lyrics pop into their heads.” 

Carmilla chuckled, leaning down to peck Laura’s neck.  “That explains why I watched so much air-guitaring when you were talking to them earlier.” 

“Do you think it’s the humming?  Is that want starts the trance so they can make the magic?”  Laura was enjoying Carmilla’s affections, but still couldn’t take her eyes off the sky. 

Carmilla shrugged, letting her lips trace the smaller vampire’s jawline. 

“That’s it Jim!  Wonderful.  Let’s make a moon, shall we?” 

Laura looked over at the men, who stopped making fireworks, then back up at the sky. 

There wasn’t an artificial moon anymore.  Hadn’t there been one when she first got to the city? What happened to it?

“Let’s make a moon, Bobby! Lovely.”  They started humming another tune, beginning to dance in a different way than they had for the fireworks.  Laura watched them, still trying to figure it all out. 

Until Jim took off his vest, and Bobby began removing his T-shirt.  Laura and Carmilla both frozen, surprised, and honestly, while looking at the furry gray haired chests, a little grossed out. 

“Guys?  What are you--”

Once two pairs of pants dropped, Laura and Carmilla both immediately turned away. 

“The moon dance!” 

“Yeah there are no clothes for the moon dance, lovelies.  The moon only comes out to play if you are completely open for her.” 

“Oh God, my eyes.”  Laura said, keeping her eyes shielded. 

“Laura, can we stop trying to be friends with people we don’t know down here?” Carmilla half-whined, half growled, also trying to shield her eyes. 

Laura peeked through her fingers, hoping the wizards were putting their clothes back on.  Instead, she was greeted by four aging butt cheeks, moving in circles like they were carrying an invisible hula-hoop. 

“It’s getting worse.”  Laura quickly snapped her fingers shut. 

If they even heard them, the wizards didn’t acknowledge them, wrapped up in their own world of hip swaying and humming. 

“Let’s take a walk.”  Carmilla said quickly, turning them away from the naked wizards, swallowing her gag reflex. 

“How about we go back up to the surface?  It might be nice to look at a real moon, you know, and not _be_ mooned.” 

Carmilla quickly nodded.  “Yes.  A real moon sounds like the less nauseating option for the moment.”  The dark-haired vampire led her girlfriend towards the door that lead out to the central terminal, arm around her shoulder, both women still shuddering at what they had seen.  Carmilla was trying to think of anything that could get the image of loose skin out of her mind, going over all of the places above the surface they could go and see people with clothes on. 

Laura was about to open the heavy, iron-clad wooden door, when it popped open, startling both of them. The two vampires were immediately on edge and ready to shift into cat. 

Until they saw a pair of red heads pop through. 

“Laf? Perry?”  Laura asked, shocked at what she was witnessing, taking a moment to process.  “Laf! Perry!”  She said, more excitedly once she realized the two were really present, and not her eyes playing tricks on her. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”  Carmilla groaned, rolling her eyes at how excited the two humans were, clearly not understanding how much danger they had just put themselves in.

 

 

 

 


	10. Of Course You Did

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay! Trust me here. I know where we're going :)

It’s not that Carmilla didn’t like Laura’s friends _per se_ , but more that before Laura, she considered humans to be more like decorations.  Or other people’s pets.  And it’s not that Lafontaine or Perry were terrible to be around, but it was more like seeing someone’s curtains that aren’t particularly appealing and they’re fine in someone else’s space. 

But now they’re in Carmilla’s city.  And they’re touching _everything_ and running from place to place, and being quiet in loud places and loud in quiet places and even with less than a hundred occupants it was still embarrassing. 

And the worst part was that Carmilla knew because they were with her and Laura, nobody would just eat them and put her out of her misery. 

And to make matters worse, Laura swore she would tell them she was a vampire, and she just couldn’t get the words out and it was driving Carmilla insane. 

“Today I’m going to tell them.”  Laura said, arms on her hips, as though she had just stated to the troops, ‘Today, we march into battle’, to all the imaginary vampire soldiers. 

“Mmm hmm.”  Carmilla didn’t even bother to look up from her book, perfectly content at the bar of the tavern, where she had gotten up several times to bartend some blood for herself, only to return to _Beyond Good and Evil_ , become irritated with both the writing and the theories, getting up to switch to actual alcohol, going back to the book.  The older vampire was used to being eternal, spending a whole day on one book once she got going, especially if there was a heated dialogue in her head, was nothing new. 

“Really.  I mean it this time.”

“Mmm hmmmmmmm.” 

“The problem was that I was waiting for a good time, but like, what if there’s never a good time?  I’m always just going to wish I had said something but I didn’t because Lafontaine is having too much fun taking gravestone etchings or Perry needs to be distracted from getting on the boat ride and just I can’t wait anymore!” 

Laura hated hiding that she was a vampire now from her friends.  It was like she was lying by omission every moment of her existence.  She was only feeding by occasionally sneaking into the tavern when the other two were busy, downing a couple of shots, wiping her mouth thoroughly, waiting for her fangs to retract, then running back to catch up with the group. 

Fast food was never Laura Hollis’ thing. 

Because she was also constantly just a tad bit hungry, she really, _really_ wanted to bite someone.  She was _not_ going to have that someone be a good friend. 

“Okay.  This time you’ll tell them.” Carmilla’s nonchalant attitude made clear how much she didn’t believe Laura, as the last three days had shown that she was likely never, ever going to be able to actually say out loud, ‘I’m a vampire’. 

If Laura couldn’t get up the nerve to tell two highly non-judgmental friends, Carmilla didn’t want to think about what would happen if Laura ever wanted to tell her father. 

Laura continued to stand with her hands on her hips next to Carmilla’s barstool, lip pouting out. 

“I can feel you pouting.”  The response came from beneath the dark brown, almost black curl curtains shielding Carmilla’s face. 

“Then make me not pout.”  Carmilla’s head shot up in a grin, hopping off the barstool to grab Laura’s waist.

“And how do you propose I achieve such a feat?” Carmilla started kissing down Laura’s neck, knowing full well that she just heard the door to the tavern open, and not really caring. 

“Ah! She’s biting her!”  Perry’s high pitched voice pierced through the air, causing Carmilla’s sigh to be audible, even muffled by tender skin.

“She’s not biting me.”  Laura huffed.  She loved them, she did, but when it came to things like ‘tact’ or ‘not interrupting girlfriend time’…

“Yet.”  Carmilla answered, face still buried in neck, causing the younger vampire to giggle.

“Ew.”  Lafontaine said, walking in with a handful of sour straw candies, casually breezing past a still frozen-in-place Perry.  “Hey so is this place a total free-for-all?  The grown-ups are all off the island and we can take whatever we want?”

“Knock yourself out, agent orange.”  Carmilla finally extracted herself from Laura, but not before whispering in her ear, “Tell. Them. Today.” 

Laura nodded, turning around to see Lafontaine dive over the bar to rummage around instead of simply walking behind it. 

“Sweetie, what are you—”

“Found it!” Laf pulled out the bottle of spiced rum and two highball glasses.  She started feeding herself another sour straw before motioning for everyone to sit down at a table. 

Laura’s stomach growled.  She hadn’t had time for breakfast yet, as first thing in the morning Perry was up and ready to go, as Laura had made the mistake of mentioning the various magic and weapons shops in town, some of which still had proprietors who hadn’t fled.  They had given the two unannounced visitors a basic rundown of why the city was so deserted, leaving out a few minor details.

Namely that the big bad that fled after being discovered was Carmilla’s ex, and that Laura’s physiological composition underwent the ultimate morbid makeover.

“Why don’t I get you a glass of wine.”  Carmilla said to Laura, in a tone clear enough that Laura knew what she meant.  Laura quickly shook her head.  The dark-haired vampire shot a look over her should at the humans, giggling over the rum like two Cheetos-in-a-pod, before hushing her voice. 

“Laura, you have to eat.  It looks just like red wine.”

“No it doesn’t.  They’ll be able to tell.  Laf’s a scientist.  Don’t you think they’d know the difference between fluid varieties after, I don’t know, spending a semester staring at it through a microscope?”

“Think of it as an opportunity to discuss a matter of importance then. Such as when someone needs to _come out to their friends_ about something.” 

Laura went pale.  This was really happening.  She was going to have to tell them, or just keep starving. 

She looked up at Carmilla, letting her fear show in her eyes, before nodding.  Carmilla nodded back, leaning in to Laura’s ear, “You are not just Laura Hollis.  You are Laura Hollis, an immortal, powerful being.  You have tumbled down the well of death, and managed to climb back out.  You are a strong, determined tiger who’s not afraid to show anyone who’s boss.  Do not be afraid of what we are.”  Carmilla punctuated the softly-spoken speech with a kiss on her cheek, before hopping behind the bar to pour Laura a full meal.

Laura sat down at the table with Lafontaine and Perry, noticing that Perry was laying out their haul from shopping the last couple of days.  She looked at the mostly jeweled and metallic pile of items. 

These were most certainly _not_ regular vacation souvenirs.  She took a few mental snapshots of the items in front of her.  She would have to revisit the library at some point to look some of these items up, as she was fairly certain a large portion of them were magical.  Minus the ceramic mug that Laf had picked up with blood painted dripping down the sides.

“Here we are.”  Carmilla sat down, two matching wine glasses now on the table. 

Laura could smell it immediately.  It was a distinct scent, the iron making her nostrils widen internally to take in more, fangs immediately dropping.  She kept her lips sealed tight so they wouldn’t see, as she fought every instinct in her body from picking up the glass and finishing it in a good, long chug.

“This whole place is just a neat idea!  We vacation from winter to the beach, or from a city to camping, but nobody ever though to take a break from daytime and see what it looks like to always live at night!  I love it.”  Perry was busy picking through her shopping haul, trying on various pieces of jewelry, holding them up in the light as she cycled between jeweled rings. 

Laura took the distraction as an opportunity to pick up her glass, her pupils dilating as the delicious scent got closer. She couldn’t stifle the moan that came out when she finally had a good, long drink.  She felt Carmilla reach around to rub her back, the gesture relaxing her as she downed half the glass. 

It was warm, and delightful.  It was exactly what she needed after taking a sneaking a sip here and there.  Perry was so caught up in trying to match a particularly large red jeweled ring to just the right necklace that Laura probably could have just announced ‘I’m going to have my blood now’ and the curly-haired college woman wouldn’t have noticed. 

However, Lafontaine’s gulp when she first picked up the glass, followed by a long sigh of relief was heard by both Shadow creatures at the table, as Laura put down the empty glass, her satisfaction blurring her thoughts enough that she didn’t even think to cover her fangs.

“So…you don’t need to bite people, then? I mean I thought that was kind of, sort of, you know, part of the deal.” Lafontaine stuttered out.  “I figured eventually you would just grab someone around town, or I don’t know bite on of us-not that I want you to!  But not that we wouldn’t, you know, if--”

“I told you she wouldn’t bite us, sweetie.  She’s still our friend.” Perry threw out, as she still rummaged the trinket pile as though they were discussing the weather. 

“I know, but I guess I expected more ‘now I’m Dracu-Laura’ and less ‘tasting on the Riviera’, not that I’m not happy to be wrong here.”

Carmilla and Laura could only stare at the exchange, jaws elongating as the bickering continued.

“I told you to just ask her.”

“I can’t just ASK someone things like that, Perry.  Insensitive much? What if we were just making assumptions?”

Laura finally snapped to her senses, refreshed by her full stomach.

“Wait—you both knew???”

Carmilla leaned back in her seat, finishing her own glass with a smirk.  “Well, well, well.  This should be interesting.”


	11. Please Don't Eat Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a couple of things...1) MAJOR SPOILER FOR THE WEB SERIES--what is this Carmilla is human now bullshit? Seriously? That's like Louis Vutton just saying "Hey guys, you know how everyone really like when we make bags and clothes and fancy things? Let's stop all of that and just make keychains. They'll buy keychains if it has our name on it, right?"  
> There will be no Carmilla/Human bullshit in here. Also, Perry and Laf are super queer for each other here too, so none of that bullshit either.  
> 2) I am sorry that I keep making baby-sized chapters--so I will try to make up for it by posting more often! unless you end up getting a big one. That takes more time because I have a youtube sized attention span and writing is a book-sized project :)

_Two Days Earlier_

“We’re not ever, ever getting on a train like that again.  I like having all of my eyebrows.  And blood.  Blood is good.  In my own veins, not someone else’s mouth.” 

Perry knew Lafontaine was going to freak out when she told them that to catch the magical vampire train to the magical maybe-existing underground vampire city according to the directions from her dreams that Laf was going to have a full on freak-out.

Which is why she didn’t tell them—until it was time to jump.

Simple, really.  Perry just followed the instructions from her dreams.  She knew not to jump until she counted to three and a half, like scolding a toddler.  She was relieved when that part turned out to be true, and from the moment they boarded the Victorian decorated train car after jumping aboard, Perry knew the dreams were true. 

Which was actually frightening, given that it meant that Lafontaine’s dreams were then also probably true.  Except Lafontaine was having nightmares. 

Torturous, violent, frightening nightmares that were causing her to have very little sleep most nights. 

Perry’s dreams, however, were filled with a wonderful, fun underground city where they would be reunited with Laura.  Lafontaine’s dreams were filled with drug-addicted, mind-controlled vampires ripping each other limb from limb in time with some kind of demonic trance. 

The night when they saw it happening to Laura, with her being tied up and killed by two blond creatures of some kind that she couldn’t identify, not human, but not vampire from what she could tell, and after it was the fifth night in a row of two hours of nightmare sleep followed by hours of being too afraid to fall back asleep, they had decided to go ahead and try to follow the instructions in Perry’s dreams. 

The dreams that the woman’s voice in them promised led to a different ending. One where Lafontaine didn’t see a friend morph into a vampire.

“This door is huge.”  Lafontaine said, unsure if she were excited or terrified. 

“Well, if it does indeed hide an entire city, we’ll simply have to go inside.”

“Laf? Perry?”  They vaguely could hear Laura saying, as the door swung open to a much, much less scary scene than Lafontaine and Perry had anticipated, based on dream content. 

“Laf! Perry!”  They heard again, followed by what seemed to be some kind of mumbling growled out by Carmilla. 

“Laura! It’s so good to see you!”  Perry said, running over to Laura in what look like a hug, but instead ended up being Perry’s hands doing some type of awkward inspection.  She quickly moved to Laura’s wrists, looking for the slash marks described in Lafontaine’s dream.  Nothing.

Then she lifted Laura’s hair, searching for anything out of the ordinary—slashes, bite marks, cheap foundation concealing any injuries, and found nothing.  Lafontaine peered over Perry’s shoulder, watching the examination, wondering if they could get away with just opening Laura’s jaw up a little bit to take a peek inside for some fangs. 

Carmilla aggressively clearing her throat snapped the scientist out of that train of thought, reminding them that whether or not Laura truly was a vampire, Carmilla most certainly was, and was insanely strong. 

And now, snarling.

“So…this is a secret vampire city, huh?”  Lafontaine visibly jumped when they saw a pale faced pedestrian walking past, even at a good twenty paces away. They jumped behind the more confident Perry for protection.

“It’s lovely!”  Perry exclaimed, looking up, noticing the artificial night sky. 

“It is!”  Laura agreed, pausing to stare at them for a moment. 

The neophyte couldn’t think of a single question that wouldn’t be at least _somewhat_ rude. 

_How do you know about the city?  How did you find it?  Why was Perry borderline groping me a moment ago? Why are you both staring at me, comparing sides of my face to each other?_

“It is lovely, isn’t it?”  Carmilla finally chimed in.  “And so secret.”  She added.

“Yeah I can see why.” Lafontaine said, looking down the calm, quiet street, just as much in awe as Perry. 

Carmilla rolled her eyes.  _Of course the mad scientist doesn’t understand ‘subtle’._

“Right.  Such a _secret_ place.  You know, that you’re not supposed to travel to without a vampire’s invite, or you’re fair game to be someone’s appetizer.”  Carmilla added, seeing no choice but to be blunt.

“Carm!”  Laura shot over immediately, only seeing the older vampire shrug at Perry’s squeak.  Laura turned back to the visitors.

“Not that we would let that happen. You’re safe with us now. Right, Carm?” Carmilla simply shrugged again.  “That means yes.  Don’t worry, you’re going to love it here!  Let’s get you two checked into the inn.  Not that you really need to ‘check’ in since the desk clerk fled the city along with most of the staff—long story—but at least we know there are lots of vacant rooms.” 

“That sounds wonderful, Laura.  Thank you.”  Perry answered for the both of them, as Lafontaine was still half-hiding behind Perry. 

“Right this way then.”  Laura turned around, grabbing Carmilla’s hand to ensure that her girlfriend understood that they were to present a united front on this, whether or not Carmilla liked it. 

“We have to figure out if she’s actually a vampire.”  Lafontaine whispered in Perry’s ear, as they followed a few steps behind the couple. 

“I know.  But we might as well enjoy ourselves in the meantime.  For the record, I think she is.  She looks pale.  Doesn’t she look a little pale to you?” 

“Yeah, but living underground will do that to you.  I mean, what would she eat down here if she’s not a vampire?  I’m willing to be the underground creatures don’t have a thriving agricultural economy.” 

“True.”

“But she also looked like she wanted to bite me.  Didn’t she?  Didn’t that look like she greeted my jugular more than my face?” 

Perry had no idea, but they had to find out for sure.  And soon.


	12. Experiement #1: The Hunger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh I am so sorry this is so short...it actually seems like each chapter gets shorter and shorter. I just don't have the kind of time that I used to for hobby writing. So these might start dribbling out in nuggets rather than nothing at all!

_Still Two Days Later…_

“It’s not that difficult.  Look--” Carmilla broke table etiquette by flipping her cards over early.  “Three of a kind.  I have three fives.”  The older vampire motioned at her two cards and the three in the middle, indeed showing that it would add up to having three five cards. 

“So that should mean that I win!”  Perry said frustrated, also flipping her cards. 

Initially, Laura was glad that the old nightclub wasn’t rebuilt into another night club.  It would have been too strange to walk into a disaster site where she technically died and see the same types of aesthetics.  She thought a casino was a much better choice.  That was until she realized how boring she found games of chance (that Carmilla insisted were games of skill that took decades to master), and how much fun her friends were not having. 

At least Carmilla had stopped outwardly growling at the unannounced guests.

“No.  See you only have two tens.” 

“Right.  My cards are more than your cards.  I have twenty, you have fifteen.”  Carmilla rolled her eyes.

“That’s a different game sweetie.”  Lafontaine said gently, having spent the whole game trying to figure out how to fish out of Laura whether or not she was a vampire now. 

“Ugh.  How did I lose again?  It’s a good thing this isn’t for real money.” 

“It’s for real money.” Carmilla said, taking all of the cards back to shuffle them again. 

“No, I’ve only been putting these little colorful clay coins out…oh, that must be what vampire money looks like.”  Perry picked up a green chip, examining it closely.

“No, you cash them in for money over at…you know what? It’s not important. How about we try slot machines instead?”  Carmilla answered.  Normally, she would enjoy a good card game as a distraction from regular life.  However, she had very little patience for uninvited humans as it was, and getting the two visitors through any table games was proving to be difficult. 

“No!  I want to learn.  I’m going to be a card fish.”

“Card shark.”  Carmilla correct under her breath. 

Lafontaine saw this as an opportunity.  Maybe if they got the vampires hungry enough, they’d see some fangs.  Or a feeding—some kind of proof as to whether or not Laura was a vampire. 

“Speaking of card sharks—did anyone see that Shark Week was last week on television?” They said casually. 

“Oh.  We don’t actually have cable down here.”  Laura said, feeling a little strange about the conversation. 

_Last week…when I was still learning how to feed properly and learning about vampire laws and worrying about if Carmilla’s ex was still some kind of death angel that might come back to destroy us…thinking about a T.V. show seems like something so unimportant._

“We have cable.”  Carmilla said, dealing out two cards per player before setting down the deck.  Carmilla had decided that if she were putting up with the two humans, she was at least going to drag out of them why they were there, and how they found out about the city. 

She would then find who told them where to find the city and rip them limb from limb.

“We do?”  Laura asked, surprised. 

“Of course.  We borrow electricity from above ground.  Do you think it’s much more difficult to run down a cable line?  We just don’t have a television in our room.” 

“You guys should get one and see if you can catch some re-runs.  There was one where the shark bit into a diver live on camera.  The steel cage he was in wasn’t reinforced enough.”

“That’s unpleasant.”  Perry responded, still trying to make sense of her cards as Carmilla put out the first community card. 

“It was fascinating.  The guy’s blood didn’t gush because it was underwater.  It kind of came out like a little red cloud. And other sharks could smell it and started swimming to the area as they pulled the injured diver up.” 

“Really.”  Carmilla said, betting more on the second community card. 

Lafontaine tried to gauge Laura’s reaction.  The younger vampire was suddenly quiet, becoming very interested in staring at the ace on the table.

“I couldn’t believe the cinematography.  The blood just looked so fresh.  Even though I’ve done very little hematology lab work, I was still surprised.  I never thought about what all that fresh blood would look like just gushing out, with a bunch of sharks waiting to get a taste.” 

And there, very subtly, everyone at the table could hear Laura’s stomach growl, before her eyes shot up. 

“I fold.  I’m just going to use the washroom for a moment.”  Laura got up quickly, turning red. 

Lafontaine and Perry shared a quick look. 

“I think I won this time!”  Perry said excited, opening her hand up.  “See, all reds!” 

“Still not how this works, Sweetie.” Lafontaine put their arm around Perry’s shoulder, giving it a reassuring rub. 

 


	13. Experiment #2: What's this?

 

“This is not happening.  This cannot be happening.”  Lafontaine paced back and forth in Laura and Carmilla’s room, as they were deposited there to rest while the two vampires had ‘a few things to take care of’. 

Also, Laura had noticed that whenever she looked at Lafontaine, the young scientist seemed to become paler and paler.  Even a little shaky.

“We should do something, shouldn’t we?  Like what if Carmilla kidnapped her and turned her into a vampire and she’s actually been trying to feed us clues that she’s Carmilla’s vampire prisoner like ‘let’s play some games’ was a distress code for ‘she’s going to eat me’ and we’ve just been--”

“Okay, just as a thought—just a tiny, incy, wincy suggestion: why don’t we not freak out.”  Perry piped up from sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I’m not freaking out!”  Lafontaine declared, promptly clapping their hands over their mouth at the unintended shout.  “I’m just concerned.” 

“Laura knows how to take care of herself.”  Perry added in. 

“How are you not freaking out about this?” 

Perry shrugged.  “It’s not like we didn’t know this was a possibility.  Laura’s had Carmilla in her life for quite some time now.  Carmilla could have made her into a vampire at any point.  The risk was always there.” 

“The risk was not always there!” Lafontaine yelled, quickly returning their hands over their mouth. 

Perry gets up, walking over to where Perry has frozen in front of the dresser.  “It’s not like Laura being—MAYBE being—a vampire isn’t concerning, but I’m more concerned with the nightmares you’re still having.”  They nod, eyes shifting between Perry and something behind her. 

Perry pauses, watching Lafontaine’s eyes.

Up at Perry.  Down to behind Perry.  Up at Perry.  Down. 

“What’s wrong?” Perry finally huffs, hoping that Laf hasn’t started hallucinating during waking hours from the lack of restful sleep. 

“What’s that?”  Lafontaine walks over to the large, leather-bound volume on Laura and Carmilla’s dresser. 

“Hmm?”  Perry spins around, noticing the book, but not noticing anything particularly striking about it.  The front has many symbols on it that she didn’t recognize at all.  Lafontaine inched closer, like they were waiting for something to jump out at them. Perry reached out to open it, before feeling her hand slapped down.

“Wait!  What if this is like a Pandora’s box?  Who knows what this is?  Laura’s a video-phile, not so much with the bo—ahhh!” 

Lafontaine shielded herself behind Perry as the curly-haired, bold woman flipped open the cover, revealing nothing. 

“It’s blank.”  Perry peered at the book, unimpressed.  “Like an elaborate journal or something.” 

“Huh.”  Lafontaine peered over Perry’s shoulder.  “Well that’s—good?  I guess?  Besides, even if it were some kind of super-creepy magic book, there’s no reason to think it would be in English.” 

As soon as Laf finished the word “English”, the book’s magical properties took over, swirling black ink into the pages. 

“Oh. My. God it’s a super-creepy magic book!”  Laf yelled. 

Perry kept watching as the words appeared on the first page. 

“It says it’s ‘The Law”.  Interesting…”  Perry picked up the book, taking it to sit down on the bed. 

“Oooooh no.  Why are you still touching it?!” 

* * *

 

Carmilla watched as Laura chugged down her third glass of blood.  She had the full on, throat open chug down pat by this one, not even dribbling down her chin like the last two. 

“More.”  She said, gasping as she slammed the glass down. 

“Laura, no.  You’ll make yourself sick.” 

“But I’m still hungry.  I think. And it's not like I had a choice.  I couldn't just say, 'Hey guys! Do you mind sitting tight for a minute while I chug the life-giving blood I need to live these days? Hop you're not squeamish!' I had no choice.” 

“So this is why I cautioned you against letting yourself get too hungry.  In another hour you would have been ready to jump on someone. We could have snuck out for ten minutes.”

“Mmm hmm.”  Laura nodded, licking out the glass she has just finished. 

Carmilla sighed.  Laura was still adorable, but was completely not getting the fact that if she had let herself get too hungry, she very well would have fed in front of her friends.  And they most certainly were not ready for that visual. 

"Why aren't you hungry?"

"I'm older than you.  I don't need to feed as often." 

She watched as the younger vampire moved on to licking the second glass.

“Laura.” 

“Yesh.”  Laura said, still licking the last glass.  Carmilla took it out of her hands and put it down.  “Doesn’t the whole ‘two people who aren’t supposed to know where this city is turn up out of the blue’ situation worry you just a little bit?” 

“Well, it didn’t until you just said that.” 

“Isn’t it strange…and they won’t talk about how they got here.  The whole thing is a giant, waiving red flag.”

Laura turned on the barstool to give her full attention to the older vampire. 

“What are we going to do?  I mean, they’re here.  They know how to get here.  There isn’t any undoing that.”

“I agree, what’s done is done.  But I am worried about where this is leading.  Big bad demon angels of death don’t tend to just go away quietly.” 

“Honestly, Carm.  If your crazy evil ex wanted to keep bothering us, wouldn’t she send someone who, I don’t know, hates us?  Instead I get sent my oh-so-scary, cuddly friends?”

“Okay first, I will not be cuddling with your friends.  Ugh.”  Carmilla lets out a shudder before continuing.  “Second, there’s no way we’re the primary target.  From what we saw, at this point Mickey—or whatever is left of her in there—is so big and evil that if she’s pulling strings to orchestrate a plan, this is definitely a move.”

“Maybe.  But maybe it’s not.”  Carmilla rolls her eyes before Laura’s hands grab her wrists to pull her to attention.  “Can we just not think about the worst case-scenario?  For a little bit?”

Carmilla studies Laura’s eyes for a moment.  She still has that look of upbeat wonder, like the world is a giant playground waiting to be discovered.

“Okay.  Are you still hungry?”  Carmilla asks carefully.  Laura nods.  The dark-haired woman lets out an exhale, before reaching over the bar for a pairing knife. 

“Carmilla?”  The vampire slices her forearm, holding it up to Laura’s mouth. 

“What are you doing?  I don’t need healing—and I think I do that myself now anyway.” 

“Drink it.  Whatever’s going on, I want us bonded. _Please Laura_.”    

 


End file.
